Treatment for diabetes with drugs

Use glucose energy to nourish insulin-producing cells. One tablespoon of glucose can be a solution for treating diabetes. The more glucose is supplied to the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, the faster the cells multiply, according to research results in experimental mice.

Doctor Yuval Dor

The findings, published in the journal Cell Metabolism , April 6, 2011, may help researchers develop new treatments for all type 1 and type 2 diabetics. , by harnessing the mechanism that leads to cell growth by providing glucose fuel. This is seen as a strategy that can help restore insulin-producing cells, damage in the pancreas, and diabetics, while avoiding the toxic effects of blood sugar. high.

For animals to eat more food or find ways for cells to come into direct contact with glucose, the sugar that fuels the active cells, this will increase the number of insulin-producing cells in Pancreas is also known as beta cell. But the exact mechanism of how glucose raises the number of beta cells has not been clearly understood.

" This is not a simple question to clarify, " according to Patricia Kilian, director of the Children's Diabetes Research Organization. " It involves many factors. " In fact, many researchers suspect that glucose itself is the main factor responsible for beta cell growth, because glucose can kill cells ( That's why high blood sugar is very dangerous for diabetics. The results of this study are truly an important contribution to understanding how to restore pancreatic function, according to Patricia Kilian.

In this study, the team of researchers, led by Yuval Dor and Benjamin Glaser, worked at Hebrew University, in Jerusalem, Israel, used genetic techniques to destroy about 80% of beta cells. in the pancreas of mice. The mice were now in a state where they were unable to produce enough insulin and therefore they had diabetes, but in the period of 4 to 6 weeks later, the rat's blood sugar returned. normal. Researchers found that some beta cells have grown back.

" Beta cells, contrary to expectations, its regeneration capacity is very slow and very weak. It is a defect in diabetes ," said Yuval Dor, a biologist.

Yuval Dor and his colleagues wanted to find out if the slow growth of beta cells was boosted by rat blood sugar or other factors. To find out, researchers killed about 80% of beta cells in a group of other mice, but now researchers re-implanted insulin-producing cells elsewhere, to help This mouse keeps blood sugar levels normal. That means that the beta cells in the pancreas that survived do not have to work hard. The researchers found that a decline in beta cell regeneration along with a relatively low amount of work for beta cells in the pancreas. This result helped researchers conclude that glucose actually involved in the regeneration of beta cells.

To firmly confirm the findings, the researchers searched for and removed an enzyme called glucokinase from the beta cells of mice. Glucokinase is an important enzyme in converting glucose into energy. Without glucokinase, "cloned beta cells have fallen nearly to zero, " Dor said. That told the researchers that the cell's ability to process sugar is important.

The results also suggest that drugs that enhance glucokinase activity may also increase beta cell growth. Researchers tested a drug that stimulates glucokinase and found that the drug could boost beta cell production in mice. People with changes that increase glucokinase activity will have more beta cells in their pancreas.

Similar drugs can help diabetics, who only have a few functional beta cells, now need to cure their pancreatic disease, an important step to cure. These drugs can promote the growth of beta cells while still reducing blood sugar flow. The next step is to understand the entire biological process involved in how glucose promotes the recovery of beta cells, Dor said.

Drugs that promote beta cell growth may also help with islet-graft diabetic patients in the pancreas, Kilian said.