With growing obesity rates, diabetes mellitus type 2 is a
growing problem in our country. While preventative measures would be the most
cost effective approach to this disorder, there are many individuals within the
population who already have developed the condition and surely many more who
will follow suit in the coming years, so the improvement of treatment after the
fact is a vital direction for diabetes research. Currently the first line
treatment for diabetes mellitus type 2 is metformin, which targets glucose
production through gluconeogenesis in diabetics who already have excessive glucose
production. The current treatment has shown significant improvement in diabetes
complications and mortality rate when compared to dietary changes or other
treatment options like insulin, but there’s room for improvement in treatment results and
understanding of the underlying mechanism.
One such direction for new research has been found with the
MK2 enzyme, found to be overactive in diabetics and leading to impairment in
insulin sensitivity and excessive glucose levels. This enzyme is presently
being targeted as a potential direction for diabetic treatment, with
researchers intending to find an inhibitor for the MK2 enzyme that could be
added to the present treatment of metformin to improve results. Studies using
murine models have already shown that MK2 inhibition improves results in diabetic mice
and that MK2 inhibition when combined with metformin results in greater
response than either alone.
_____
News Medical - Targeting single enzyme in the obese could
help prevent and treat diabetes:
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20131122/Targeting-single-enzyme-in-the-obese-could-help-prevent-and-treat-diabetes.aspx
Do you know if the MK2 enzyme regulation is also altered in Type 1 Diabetics? If so it would be interesting to see if the development of insulin insensitivity in Type 1 Diabetics can be ameliorated by inhibitor therapy. From anecdotal evidence I know that sometimes Type 1 Diabetics can slowly develop a resistance to the insulin that they inject themselves with, thus requiring increasingly large doses of insulin to eat the same foods that they used to eat all the time. Maybe a combination of insulin and enzyme therapy would be a good thing for both Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetics. I know I would like it if I could decrease the amount of insulin I have to take.
ReplyDelete