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Diabetes cure may lie in the brain Washington:
Researchers have discovered that the animal brain plays a much bigger
role in normal blood sugar control than previously believed, paving the
way for new strategies that target the molecules involved in the brain's
response to insulin ,that may prove beneficial in the management of diabetes
in humans. The study conducted by Michael Schwartz of the University of
Washington at Seattle, and his associates,and published in the January
11, 2006, Cell Metabolism, found that the brain makes a substantial contribution
to insulin response. The findings in rats suggest that therapies that
boost the brain response to insulin in patients with diabetes might improve
blood sugar control while lowering the required dose of the hormone, which
in turn, might help to reduce side effects of insulin treatment, such
as weight gain. "Our findings suggest that, in individuals with diabetes,
the ability of insulin to lower blood sugar involves the brain," said
senior author of the study, Michael Schwartz. "This effect is not trivial;
the brain makes a substantial contribution to insulin response," he added.
For the purpose of their study, the researchers infused the brains of
the diabetic rats with a chemical that limits the function of an enzyme
involved in the normal insulin response, before injecting the animals
with the hormone. Without the normal brain response to insulin, the hormone
therapy's efficacy for reducing blood sugar fell by about 35%, Schwartz
said. Furthermore, they found that gene therapy interventions designed
to increase the brain's insulin response heightened the animals' response
to therapy about 2-fold. Strategies that target the molecules involved
in the brain's response to insulin "may therefore prove beneficial in
the management of diabetes in humans," the researchers said. Differences
in brain sensitivity to the insulin hormone might also help to explain
the often "huge variation in insulin requirement" among otherwise comparable
diabetes patients, Schwartz said.
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