Mayo Clinic-led Research Team Tests Alternative Approach to Treating Diabetes
Posted Jun 12 2011 6:28pm
In a mouse study, scientists at Mayo Clinic Florida have demonstrated the feasibility of a promising new strategy for treating human type 2 diabetes, which affects more than 200 million people worldwide.
In type 2 diabetes, the body stops responding efficiently to insulin, a hormone that controls blood sugar. To compensate for the insensitivity to insulin, many diabetes drugs work by boosting insulin levels; for example, by injecting more insulin or by increasing the amount of insulin secreted from the pancreas. The new study, published in the June 9 issue of PLoS ONE, showed that a different approach could also be effective for treating diabetes — namely, blocking the breakdown of insulin, after it is secreted from the pancreas.
“Insulin levels in the blood reflect the balance between how much is secreted and how fast it is broken down,” says the study’s lead researcher, Malcolm A. Leissring, Ph.D., from Mayo Clinic’s Department of Neuroscience. “Blocking the breakdown of insulin is simply an alternative method for achieving the same goal as many existing diabetes therapies.”
In a mouse study, scientists at Mayo Clinic Florida have demonstrated the feasibility of a promising new strategy for treating human type 2 diabetes, which affects more than 200 million people worldwide.
In type 2 diabetes, the body stops responding efficiently to insulin, a hormone that controls blood sugar. To compensate for the insensitivity to insulin, many diabetes drugs work by boosting insulin levels; for example, by injecting more insulin or by increasing the amount of insulin secreted from the pancreas. The new study, published in the June 9 issue of PLoS ONE, showed that a different approach could also be effective for treating diabetes — namely, blocking the breakdown of insulin, after it is secreted from the pancreas.
“Insulin levels in the blood reflect the balance between how much is secreted and how fast it is broken down,” says the study’s lead researcher, Malcolm A. Leissring, Ph.D., from Mayo Clinic’s Department of Neuroscience. “Blocking the breakdown of insulin is simply an alternative method for achieving the same goal as many existing diabetes therapies.”