Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Diabetes Is Yet Another Disease Cured! (In Mice…)


WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2011

written by Michael O’Leary

The day when you take a pill to prevent or reverse type 2 diabetes may be a step closer, but clinical testing of the new, promising drug is still a few years away according to new research published yesterday.

Researchers have restored normal blood sugar control in mice with type 2 diabetes and the finding suggests it may be possible for people some day too. (Link to published site)
The study, led by Dr. Shin-Ichiro Imai, associate professor of developmental biology at Washington University in St. Louis, showed that a naturally occurring compound called nicotinamide mononucleotide, or NMN, plays a vital role in how cells use energy. The study was published Oct. 4 in the online version of the journal Cell Metabolism

Imai says the significance of this discovery is that it holds promise for people because the mechanism that the medication works on is essentially the same in humans and mice.

“After giving NMN, glucose tolerance goes completely back to normal in female diabetic mice,” Imai said in a statement. “In males, we see a milder effect compared to females, but we still see an effect. These are really remarkable results. NMN improves diabetic symptoms, at least in mice.”

While many reports on this study may make it sound as if people with type 2 diabetes will be able to take a pill in the near future to cure their diabetes, it is not quite that easy. Animal studies are the first step in determining if a treatment affects disease processes in they way researchers think it will. While the disease processes in mice are similar to those in humans, there are important differences. To translate the results from mice to humans will take carefully controlled clinical trials over a number of years to determine safety, effectiveness and side effects.

In this study mice were fed a high-fat diet until they developed type 2 diabetes, similar to the human disease. The researchers then gave the mice daily NMN injections for a week to 10 days. NMN works on the biological pathway involved in the metabolism of glucose revolving around a chemical called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+).

They found that the high-fat diet significantly reduced the production of NAD+ in the livers and fat tissues of the mice. In the female mice the NMN restored NAD+ levels to normal and completely restored glucose tolerance to normal levels.

In the male mice NMN had similar effects but not as great. In addition glucose tolerance remained unchanged. In another experiment, however, the researchers tested the age-related diabetes in male mice and found that a single dose of NMN restored glucose tolerance in these mice.

Though the mice received NMN by injection in this study, Imai’s group is now conducting a long-term study of diabetic mice that get NMN dissolved in their drinking water. Imai calls this work a first step toward a possible “nutriceutical” that people could take almost like a vitamin to treat or even prevent type 2 diabetes.

“Once we can get a grade of NMN that humans can take, we would really like to launch a pilot human study,” Imai says.

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