An oral pill to treat diabetes

Researchers have found a alternate for insulin to help treat diabetes orally, replacing painful pricks over 10 years, Erik Helmerhorst, professor at Curtin University, and colleagues looked at three million compounds on pharmaceutical databases to try to follow the molecular map of insulin they found one, and are increasing it to "take the needle out of diabetes".

"Our innovation is the expansion of a new chemical entity, a small drug molecule we have revealed and, developed, that can be taken orally as a tablet to replace insulin per se," said Helmerhorst.

The research has the capability to revolutionise the treatment of diabetes, which is a growing problem worldwide helmerhorst said there was a niche market for their drug molecule to target Type 2 diabetics to help delay the onset of insulin addiction according to a Curtin statement.

New Clues to How Gastric Bypass Surgery Combats Diabetes

Gastric bypass surgery has been known to improve blood sugar control, often sending people with type 2 diabetes into remission, but experts have long wondered exactly how that happens. Now, a new study provides some clues. Circulating amino acids linked with insulin resistance decline dramatically in those who have the bypass surgery, the researchers discovered. They compared 10 obese people with diabetes who had the surgery with 11 who lost weight through dieting. "Something happens after gastric bypass that does not happen as much after the diet-induced weight loss," said Dr. Blandine Laferrere, an associate professor of medicine at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center and Columbia University, both in New York City.

The surgery, which reduces the stomach to the size of a small pouch, also modifies the junction between the stomach and small intestine. It leads to a dramatic reduction in the level of circulating amino acids that have been linked with diabetes. "The fact that gastric bypass results in the remission of diabetes in the majority of patients is not new," said Laferrere. According to background information in the study, 50 percent to 80 percent of diabetes cases go into remission after the surgery. What doctors have been trying to figure out, she said, is why the bypass surgery is so good at making the diabetes disappear. "The diabetes improves almost immediately, before a significant amount of weight loss occurs," she said. "That points out it is something other than the weight loss."

In the new study, the researchers evaluated biochemical compounds involved in metabolic reactions in the participants. Each group had lost about 20 pounds. The investigators found that the bypass patients had much lower levels of amino acids known as branched-chain amino acids, and the amino acids phenylalanine and tyrosine. "Those changes in the amino acids could be implicated in the mechanism of diabetes remission after gastric bypass," Laferrere said. Experts know the amino acids are linked with insulin resistance partly due to animal studies, she said. "If you supplement the diet of rats with branched-chain amino acids, you can induce more insulin resistance," she explained.

Do Immune System Ills Help Drive Type 2 Diabetes?

New research suggests that the development of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes may be linked to an immune system reaction gone awry. "The main point of this study is trying to shift the emphasis in thinking of type 2 diabetes as a purely metabolic disease, and instead emphasize the role of the immune system in type 2," said study co-author Dr. Daniel Winer, an endocrine pathologist at Toronto General Hospital in Canada. When the research began, Winer was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University in California. The researchers have identified immune system antibodies in people who are obese and insulin-resistant that aren't present in people who are obese without insulin resistance. They also tested a drug that modifies the immune system in mice fed a fatty diet, and found that the medication could help maintain normal blood sugar levels.

The findings were published online April 17 in the journal Nature Medicine. Funding for the study was provided by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Nearly 26 million Americans have diabetes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between 90 percent and 95 percent of these cases are type 2 diabetes, where the body doesn't use insulin efficiently, so the pancreas must make increasing amounts of insulin. Eventually, the pancreas stops making enough insulin to meet the increased demand. The less common form of the disease, type 1 diabetes, occurs when the immune system mistakenly destroys the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. This type of diabetes is considered an autoimmune disease, and isn't linked to how much a person weighs.

Although the causes of type 2 haven't been clear, it's known that the disease runs in families, suggesting a genetic component. Also, while type 2 is strongly linked to increased weight, not everyone who is overweight gets type 2 diabetes. And, that's what got the researchers searching for another factor. Winer explained that excess weight has been linked to inflammation, which can cause the immune system to react. As visceral fat (abdominal fat) expands, it eventually runs out of room, explained Winer. At that point, the fat cells may become stressed and inflamed, and eventually the cells die. When that happens, immune system cells known as macrophages come to sweep up the mess.

Long-Term Type 1 Diabetes 'Survivors' Give Clues to the Disease

Although it's long been thought that people with type 1 diabetes cease to produce any insulin after they've had the disease for a while, new research suggests that the insulin-producing beta cells destroyed by type 1 diabetes may actually be in a constant state of turnover, even in people who've had diabetes for decades. This new research stems from a study of people who've had type 1 diabetes for at least 50 years and have been awarded the Joslin Diabetes Center's "50-Year Medal." In fact, the impetus for the study came from one of the medalists who mentioned to her doctor that she believed her body was still making some insulin.

"I knew I still produced insulin. I don't do it all the time, but sometimes I need a lot less insulin, and the doctors proved on one test that I still did make some insulin," said medalist Elizabeth Saalfeld from Springfield, Va., who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1945 at age 9. "In our study, we made the unexpected finding that about two-thirds of the medalists still retained the ability to have positive C-peptide results, which is an indication that they could still be making insulin," said the study's senior author, Dr. George L. King, chief scientific officer at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. "It was a surprise because they've had diabetes for so long."

Results of the study were released online Aug. 10 in advance of publication in an upcoming print issue of the journal Diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is believed to be an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system mistakenly attacks the beta cells in the pancreas. When enough beta cells have been destroyed, the body is no longer able to produce sufficient enough amounts of insulin to properly metabolize the carbohydrates in food. Someone with type 1 diabetes must replace that lost insulin through daily injections.The current study included 411 living diabetes medalists, and a post-mortem pancreas analysis from another nine medalists.