Diabetes news, discovery and discussion thread

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GDF15 hormone found to make insulin work better
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08- ... sulin.html
by University of Copenhagen

More than 500 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes. Roughly 2.6 billion are overweight. Something that both groups have in common is that the hormone insulin does not work nearly as well for them as it does for people who are healthy and in a normal weight range. Researchers have been eager to better understand the processes that affect insulin function in our bodies in order to develop new medications and treatments.

In a new study, researchers from the University of Copenhagen's Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports (NEXS) studied how GDF15 (growth differentiation factor 15) affects insulin sensitivity in rodents.

The researchers were the first to discover that GDF15 actually improves sensitivity in mice and rats, making them better suited to regulate their blood sugar and absorb energy in their muscles. The result, published in journal Cell Metabolism, increases our general understanding of GDF15.

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After treatment with semaglutide, newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes patients found to need little or no insulin

by University at Buffalo
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-09- ... ients.html

Treating newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes patients with semaglutide (trade names Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus) may drastically reduce or even eliminate their need for injected insulin.

Those are the remarkable findings of a small University at Buffalo study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine and published online on Sept. 6.

"Our findings from this admittedly small study are, nevertheless, so promising for newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes patients that we are now absolutely focused on pursuing a larger study for a longer period of time," says Paresh Dandona, MD, Ph.D., SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Medicine, former chief of the Division of Endocrinology in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB and senior author on the paper.

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Type 1 diabetic chiming in here.

Managing diabetes is a continuous journey, and I've found that striking the right balance between exercise and diet has been the cornerstone for me. Every morning, I kickstart my day with a brisk 30-minute walk. This not only helps in managing my glucose levels but also gets my endorphins running. Post-walk, I indulge in some light yoga, focusing on asanas that help with blood circulation and stress reduction. On the diet front, breakfast is pivotal for me. I usually opt for something high in protein, like scrambled tofu or a Greek yogurt parfait, while keeping my carbs in check.

Alongside my lifestyle adjustments, I've added a plant-based supplement called GlucoTrust to my regimen. It aids in natural insulin secretion that keeps the glucose level normal and helps with weight loss. It has many other effects that you can read about in this article: https://www.outlookindia.com/outlook-sp ... ews-315780.

So, by combining all these habits, my glucose levels read 80 mg/dl on my last doctor's visit, which is a great result for a person with diabetes.

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GlucoTrust Reviews: Does It Work? What They Won’t Show You!

September 7, 2022

Extract:

(HeraldNet) GlucoTrust Ingredients Label

The makers of GlucoTrust do not disclose the full list of ingredients or dosages upfront. We know some of the 15+ ingredients in GlucoTrrust. However, we don’t know the names or dosages of all ingredients.
…
The makers of GlucoTrust do not disclose any clinical trials, scientific studies, or other information supporting the use of GlucoTrust’s ingredients. However, there’s plenty of third party evidence proving that chromium, biotin, juniper berries, licorice, and cinnamon can help balance blood sugar.
…
Overall, GlucoTrust contains a blend of natural ingredients linked to better blood sugar management. However, it’s held back by the lack of dosage information: we don’t know if GlucoTrust contains 1,000mg to 6,000mg of cinnamon extract as used in scientific studies – or if it only contains trace amounts. With limited dosage and ingredient information disclosed upfront, it’s hard to compare GlucoTrust to other top-rated diabetes supplements sold online today.

Read more here: https://www.heraldnet.com/marketplace/ ... show-you/

caltrek’s comment: It is, or should be, pretty standard in such recommendations to suggest that prospective users should consult with a physician begore using the product in question.

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10-second voice test shown to detect type 2 diabetes
By Ben Coxworth
October 18, 2023

Currently, if someone wants to see if they have type 2 diabetes, they have to travel to a clinic for blood tests and then wait for results. According to a recent study, however, a 10-second smartphone voice recording may soon deliver on-the-spot results immediately.

The study was conducted by scientists from international biotech firm Klick Labs, and involved 267 test subjects who had already been diagnosed as being either non-diabetic (192 people) or type 2 diabetic (75 people).

Each person was asked to record a specific spoken phrase on their own smartphone via an app, up to six times a day for two weeks. Depending on the speed at which each individual spoke, those recordings were six to 10 seconds long.

https://newatlas.com/medical/10-second- ... -diabetes/

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Implanting insulin-producing cells into the eye could help treat diabetes
By Michael Irving
October 22, 2023

Diabetes is one of the most pressing health concerns of our time, and now Swedish scientists have demonstrated a new potential way to manage the disease. It turns out the eye might be a useful place to implant insulin-producing cells to control blood sugar levels.

In patients with type 1 diabetes, the immune system mistakenly attacks the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, leaving the body unable to regulate blood sugar levels and leading to a host of health problems.

A promising emerging therapy involves growing new pancreatic cells from a patient’s stem cells, loading them into a device and implanting it into the body. Human clinical trials have shown success with this, but there’s a major catch – the immune system recognizes the device as foreign and rejects it. Immunosuppressant medications can counter that, but also leave the patient vulnerable to infections and other diseases.

https://newatlas.com/medical/diabetes-i ... e-implant/

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Diabetes-delaying drug shows promise in phase 3 clinical trial
By Michael Irving
October 23, 2023

A phase 3 clinical trial has shown that a drug called teplizumab can slow down progression of type 1 diabetes in children and teenagers with a recent diagnosis. The trial’s success could help expand the options for patients and relieve some burdens of the disease.

Type 1 diabetes often rears its head at a young age, as a patient’s immune system attacks beta cells in the pancreas and they lose the ability to produce insulin. Symptoms begin at stage 3 of the disease, but it can be diagnosed earlier with the detection of related autoantibodies and abnormal blood sugar levels. Unfortunately, little can be done with that extra time besides preparing for the lifestyle.

“There has been nothing available to stop the progression of type 1 diabetes after the diagnosis,” said Kevan Herold, lead author of the study. “We know that kids with new-onset diabetes lose the ability to make insulin over a period of years. Teplizumab seems to slow that down.”

https://newatlas.com/medical/teplizumab ... cal-trial/

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Study provides preliminary evidence in favor of a new type 1 diabetes treatment
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-11- ... tment.html
by University of Chicago Medical Center

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that causes the body's immune system to attack and destroy insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Traditional management of type 1 diabetes has primarily involved replacing the missing insulin with injections which, though effective, can be expensive and burdensome.

A new study, published in Cell Reports Medicine, led by researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine and Indiana University suggests that an existing drug could be repurposed to treat type 1 diabetes, potentially reducing dependence on insulin as the sole treatment. The study is titled "Inhibition of Polyamine Biosynthesis Preserves β-Cell Function in Type 1 Diabetes,"

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Boosting beta cells to treat type 2 diabetes
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-11- ... betes.html
by Weill Cornell Medical College

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have uncovered a novel route to stimulate the growth of healthy insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells in a preclinical model of diabetes. The findings hold promise for future therapeutics that will improve the lives of individuals with type 2 diabetes—a condition that affects more than half a billion people worldwide.

This study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation on Sept. 15, demonstrated that activating a pathway to promote cell division not only expanded the population of insulin-producing cells, but surprisingly, it also enhanced the cells' function.

"That's reassuring because there is a long-standing belief in the field that proliferation can lead to 'de-differentiation' and a loss of cell function," said study senior author Dr. Laura Alonso, chief of the division of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism, director of the Weill Center for Metabolic Health, and the E. Hugh Luckey Distinguished Professor in Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. "Our result flies in the face of that dogma and suggests if we can find a way to trigger replication of the beta cells in the body, we won't impair their ability to produce and secrete insulin."

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Slow-release diabetes drugs could cut shots from daily to 3 times a year
By Michael Irving
November 21, 2023

Managing diabetes usually involves regular shots of insulin or other drugs, but soon patients might only need to inject themselves a few times a year. Stanford has developed a hydrogel-based delivery system that slowly releases drugs over months to control diabetes and even weight.

An effective and relatively recent form of diabetes treatment involves drugs that mimic a hormone called glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), which manages insulin release and reduces appetite. These include FDA-approved drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro, which also seem to have the bonus benefit of weight loss. These drugs are usually administered weekly, while the more familiar insulin shots are needed daily. Either way, that strict routine can be quite a burden on patients – and this is the problem that the Stanford team is tackling.

https://newatlas.com/medical/ozempic-gl ... ur-months/

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At-home saliva testing could replace daily finger-jabs for diabetics
By Ben Coxworth
November 30, 2023
https://newatlas.com/medical/saliva-glu ... diabetics/

Daily finger-prick blood tests are an uncomfortable fact of life for diabetics, but they may not always have to be. Scientists from Canada and the US have now developed a prototype home-use device that measures blood glucose levels via saliva samples.

It was already known that concentrations of glucose (and certain other biomarker chemicals) in a person's saliva are proportional to those in their bloodstream. Because glucose levels are much lower in saliva, however, specialized lab-based equipment is required to accurately measure them.

Researchers from the Université de Sherbrooke in Quebec and the Colgate-Palmolive Company in New Jersey set out to change that, by looking to an existing tool known as an electrochemical aptamer-based (E-AB) biosensor.

Such devices incorporate a specially engineered piece of DNA – called an aptamer – that binds to a target biomarker in a sample. When that happens, the sensor produces a measurable electrochemical signal.

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World-first human trial finds arthritis drug can suppress progression of type 1 diabetes
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-12- ... -drug.html
by St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research

Researchers at St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research (SVI) in Melbourne have shown that a commonly prescribed rheumatoid arthritis drug can suppress the progression of type 1 diabetes.

The world-first human trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine and led by SVI's Professor Thomas Kay, showed that a drug called baricitinib can safely and effectively preserve the body's own insulin production and suppress the progression of type 1 diabetes in people who initiated treatment within 100 days of diagnosis.

"When type 1 diabetes is first diagnosed there is a substantial number of insulin-producing cells still present. We wanted to see whether we could protect further destruction of these cells by the immune system. We showed that baricitinib is safe and effective at slowing the progression of type 1 diabetes in people who have been recently diagnosed," said Professor Kay.

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New cause of diabetes discovered, offering potential target for new classes of drugs to treat the disease
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-12- ... sease.html
by Case Western Reserve University

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals have identified an enzyme that blocks insulin produced in the body—a discovery that could provide a new target to treat diabetes.

Their study, published Dec. 5 in the journal Cell, focuses on nitric oxide, a compound that dilates blood vessels, improves memory, fights infection and stimulates the release of hormones, among other functions. How nitric oxide performs these activities had long been a mystery.

The researchers discovered a novel "carrier" enzyme (called SNO-CoA-assisted nitrosylase, or SCAN) that attaches nitric oxide to proteins, including the receptor for insulin action.

They found that the SCAN enzyme was essential for normal insulin action, but also discovered heightened SCAN activity in diabetic patients and mice with diabetes. Mouse models without the SCAN enzyme appeared to be shielded from diabetes, suggesting that too much nitric oxide on proteins may be a cause of such diseases.

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Examining diabetes with a skin scanner and AI
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-12- ... er-ai.html
by Technical University Munich

Changes in small blood vessels are a common consequence of diabetes development. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Helmholtz Munich have now developed a method that can be used to measure these microvascular changes in the skin—and thus assess the severity of the disease. To achieve this, they combine artificial intelligence (AI) and innovative high-resolution optoacoustic imaging technology. The work is published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.

Optoacoustic imaging methods use light pulses to generate ultrasound inside tissue. The ultrasound waves generated are then recorded by sensors and converted to images. The signals are caused by tiny expansions and contractions of tissue that surround molecules that strongly absorb light. One such molecule is hemoglobin. Since hemoglobin is concentrated in blood vessels, optoacoustic imaging can produce detailed unique images of vessels in ways not possible by other non-invasive techniques.

The basic principles of optoacoustics, or photoacoustics, have been known for more than a century, but practical applications in medicine are fairly recent. Vasilis Ntziachristos is Professor of Biological Imaging at TUM and Director of the Institute of Biological and Medical Imaging and of the Bioengineering Center at Helmholtz Munich. Together with his team, he has developed a range of optoacoustic imaging methods, among them RSOM, short for raster-scan optoacoustic mesoscopy.

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Scientists discover new "cause" for diabetes, opening new treatments
By Michael Irving
December 11, 2023

Scientists have discovered a new mechanism for how type 2 diabetes takes hold, and demonstrated in mice that blocking a particular enzyme could open a new avenue of treatment for the disease.

Type 2 diabetes begins as a patient’s body stops responding to insulin, and eventually loses the ability to produce enough of the hormone. Without it, blood glucose levels remain high and can cause a range of serious health problems. But scientists still don’t fully understand exactly why the insulin system stops working in the first place.

In the new study, scientists at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals have identified an enzyme that plays an important role. Known as SCAN, the enzyme is a carrier that attaches nitric oxide to proteins, including one that acts as a receptor for insulin action.

Nitric oxide is a key chemical messenger in the body, which aids circulation and regulates hormones, including insulin. But the team detected heightened SCAN activity in both mice and humans with diabetes, and inversely, engineered mice that lacked the SCAN enzyme seemed to be protected from the effects of diabetes.

https://newatlas.com/medical/new-cause- ... e-insulin/

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Healthy Plant-based Diet reduces Diabetes Risk by 24 Per Cent
December 11, 2023

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) At least 75 per cent of type 2 diabetes cases could be avoided by adopting a healthy lifestyle. A plant-based diet has been shown to play a key role in this. With limitations - as demonstrated in a study led by Tilman Kühn from MedUni Vienna's Center for Public Health: A more plant-based diet only develops its protective effects if not only the consumption of animal-based foods, but also industrially processed and highly sugary foods is reduced. For the first time, the scientists identified improvements in metabolism and liver and kidney function as reasons for the positive effects of a healthy plant-based diet, in addition to the associated lower likelihood of obesity. The study results were recently published in the journal Diabetes & Metabolism.

According to analyses by the research team, a healthy plant-based diet with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables and wholemeal products reduces the risk of diabetes by 24 per cent, even in the presence of a genetic predisposition and other diabetes risk factors such as obesity, advanced age or a lack of physical activity. Unhealthy plant-based diets with a high proportion of sweets, refined grains and sugary drinks, on the other hand, are associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

Key biomarkers identified

The research was carried out with 113,097 participants in the large-scale British cohort study (UK Biobank) over an observation period of twelve years. According to their findings, the reasons behind the anti-diabetic effect of a healthy plant-based diet go far beyond the well-known lower body fat percentage and waist circumference. "Our study is the first to identify biomarkers of central metabolic processes and organ functions as mediators of the health effects of a plant-based diet," says Tilman Kühn, Professor of Public Health Nutrition at MedUni Vienna and the University of Vienna, who led the study in close collaboration with researchers from Queen's University Belfast. The investigations confirmed that normal values for blood lipids (triglycerides), blood sugar (HbA1c), inflammatory parameters (CRP) and the insulin-like growth factor (IGF1) are associated with a low risk of diabetes.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1010743

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Study charts possibilities for a better way to diagnose gestational diabetes
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-12- ... betes.html
by Nakaysha Gonzalez, Rutgers University

A Rutgers professor and other researchers have performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate studies comparing perinatal outcomes among individuals with gestational diabetes mellitus. Pregnancy weight and biochemical markers measured in blood from women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) were related to increased risk of poor pregnancy outcomes, suggesting a new direction for precision diagnostics, according to researchers.

The study led by Ellen C. Francis, an assistant professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at Rutgers School of Public Health, and published in Communications Medicine, evaluated the diagnostic value of these markers before or at the time of screening for GDM, a type of diabetes that can develop during pregnancy.

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Food-as-Medicine study finds no improvements in type 2 diabetes patients
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-12- ... ients.html
by Justin Jackson , Medical Xpress

Research led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, has found that an intensive food-as-medicine program showed no improvement in glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes and food insecurity.

In their paper, "Effect of an Intensive Food-as-Medicine Program on Health and Health Care Use—A Randomized Clinical Trial," published in JAMA Internal Medicine, the team details a randomized clinical trial of 349 type 2 diabetes patients with previous food insecurity to assess if short-term access to healthy food options could improve glycemic control and influence health care usage. An Editor's Note by Deborah Grady on the study was published in the same journal issue.

The study targeted patients with type 2 diabetes and elevated HbA1c levels, providing intensive support and food supplies. Subjects in the treatment group (n=170) were given groceries for 10 healthy meals per week for the household, dietitian consultations, nurse evaluations, health coaching, and diabetes education for one year with a one-year follow-up. A control group (n=179) did not receive any of the benefits of the treatment program for the first six months.

Hemoglobin A1C (HbA1c) tests six months into the program showed substantial declines in both the treatment (1.5%) and control (1.3%) groups, resulting in no significant difference between groups. This might indicate that factors beyond the program contributed to the lower blood sugar levels, though what these factors might be is unclear.

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Single 'smart' insulin injection regulates glucose levels in mice and minipigs up to one week
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-12- ... ipigs.html
by Bob Yirka , Medical Xpress

A team of chemists, polymer scientists and drug delivery specialists at Zhejiang University, working with a pair of colleagues from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has developed a type of "smart" insulin that when tested in mouse and minipig models successfully regulated blood glucose levels for up to one week after just one injection.

In their paper published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, the group describes how they created their insulin, how it works, and how well it performed when given to diabetic mice and minipigs.

Diabetes type I is a chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin. Treatment for people with the disease includes a modified diet and regular injections of insulin. Many diabetics have to inject themselves more than once a day, a regimen that is both painful and difficult—the skin at injection sites tends to harden over time, making it difficult to insert a needle.

Because of such difficulties, medical researchers have continued to look for new treatment options. In this new effort, the research team has developed a kind of insulin that reacts with certain agents in the body, allowing for automatic control of glucose levels in the blood for an extended period of time.

The new smart insulin is a modified form of the type of insulin already in use—the researchers added gluconic acid, which when injected into the body transforms into a complex as it bonds with chemicals in the blood. Such complexes result in the insulin being trapped inside a natural polymer, and that results in alterations to signaling. Different amounts of insulin are released depending on blood glucose levels. This, the research team found, allowed for more insulin to be automatically released into the blood when it is needed (such as after a meal) and less when it is not.

The researchers tested their modified insulin on three minipigs and five mice—all of which had been engineered to have diabetes. Two of the minipigs received a high dose, while the third received a low dose.

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