Diabetes-Leptin can
replace insulin in future
Life Without Insulin Is Possible, Study Suggests
Sep. 3, 2013 — Several millions of people around the world
suffer from insulin deficiencies. Insulin is a hormone, secreted by the beta
cells in the pancreas, which plays a major role in the regulation of energy
substrates such as glucose. This insufficiency, primarily caused by diabetes (types 1 and 2),
has lethal consequences if it is not treated. As of now, only daily insulin
injections allow patients to survive.This approach, however, brings on serious
side effects. Thanks to their research which was published in the journal Cell
Metabolism, the University of Geneva (UNIGE) scientists identified the
underlying mechanisms, proving that life without insulin is possible, and
paving the way for new diabetes treatments.
While life without insulin was inconceivable, a group of researchers, led by
Roberto Coppari, professor in the Department of Cell Physiology and Metabolism
at UNIGE, has just demonstrated that insulin is not vital for survival. By
eliminating this dogma,
scientists are now considering alternatives to insulin treatment, which poses many risks to patients.
An error in dosage may cause hypoglycemia, i.e., a decrease in the level of
glucose in the blood, which can lead to a loss of consciousness. In addition,
about 90% of patients over 55 who have been undergoing treatment for several
years develop
cardiovascular disease due to elevated levels of cholesterol brought on
by the lipogenic
properties of insulin.
Leptin
leads to an essential discoveryResearchers from UNIGE's Faculty of Medicine
conducted experiments on rodents devoid of insulin, to which they administered leptin, a hormone
that regulates the body's fat reserves and appetite. Thanks to the leptin, all
the subjects survived their insulin deficiency. Using leptin offers two
advantages: it does not
provoke hypoglycemia and it
has a lipolytic
effect. 'Through this discovery, the path to offering an alternative to
insulin treatment is emerging. Now we need to understand the mechanisms through
which leptin affects glucose level, regardless of insulin level,' explains
Professor Coppari.
The studies were able to verify whether the neurons involved
in the mediation of leptin's anti-diabetic action in healthy mammals played a
similar role in rodents suffering from an insulin deficiency. The results
showed that this was not the case. In fact, to the scientists' surprise, GABAergic
neurons located in the hypothalamus were identified as the main mediators of
leptin's action on glucose level in the context of insulin deficiency. These
neurons' influence on glucose had never been considered substantial before.
Additionally, the researchers detected the peripheral
tissues that are affected by leptin during insulin deficiency. They consist
mainly of the liver, the soleus muscle, and brown adipose tissue, which could
be directly targeted by future treatments.
Through this discovery, scientists now know where to look
for the answer to an insulin-free diabetes treatment. Understanding the
functioning and effect of leptin on the body will enable scientists to identify
the areas of the body that are involved, and ultimately the molecules that will
form the basis of a new treatment.
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Meaning for mm people
-inconceivable ■ adj
●
မယုံၾကည္ႏုိင္ေလာက္ေအာင္။ စိတ္ကူး၍ပင္မရႏုိင္ေသာ။ inconceivably adv
မယုံၾကည္ႏုိင္ေလာက္ေအာင္။
-dogma
■ n [C, U] တရားေသလက္ခံ ထားေသာဝါဒ။