insulin tagged posts

New gene switch activates with simple skin patch and could help treat diabetes

New gene switch activates with simple skin patch
A skin patch with nitroglycerine is the switch that controls an implant underneath (symbolic image). Credit: Josef Kuster / ETH Zurich

ETH researchers have developed a new gene switch that can be activated using a commercially available nitroglycerine patch applied to the skin. One day, researchers want to use switches of this kind to trigger cell therapies for various metabolic diseases.

The body regulates its metabolism precisely and continuously, with specialized cells in the pancreas constantly monitoring the amount of sugar in the blood, for example. When this blood sugar level increases after a meal, the body sets a signal cascade in motion in order to bring it back down.

In people suffering from diabetes, this regulatory mechanism no longer works exactly as it should...

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Researchers Map the Brain during Blood Sugar Changes

Researchers at UTEP have successfully mapped specific regions in the brain that are activated in association with changes in blood sugar — also known as glucose — providing fundamental location information that could ultimately lead to more targeted therapies for people who struggle with conditions like diabetes.
Researchers at UTEP have successfully mapped specific regions in the brain that are activated in association with changes in blood sugar — also known as glucose — providing fundamental location information that could ultimately lead to more targeted therapies for people who struggle with conditions like diabetes.

Researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso have successfully mapped specific regions in the brain that are activated in association with changes in blood sugar—also known as glucose—providing fundamental location information that could ultimately lead to more targeted therapies for people who struggle with conditions like diabetes.

The landmark 13-year study, published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, describes how the team used careful microscopic analys...

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Too Much Insulin can be as Dangerous as Too Little

person taking an insulin shot
Millions of Americans use insulin injections to boost levels and treat diabetes, but too much insulin can be deadly too. Researchers have identified a key player in preventing “insulin shock” that might also prove an effective alternative to the hormone. Agamatrix

Researchers describe a key player in the defense mechanism that safeguards against excessive insulin in the body, which can be as harmful as too little. Just over a century has passed since the discovery of insulin, a time period during which the therapeutic powers of the hormone have broadened and refined. Insulin is an essential treatment for type 1 diabetes and often for type 2 diabetes, as well. Roughly 8.4 million Americans use insulin, according to the American Diabetes Association.

One hundred years of research ...

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Study reveals Obesity-related Trigger that can lead to Diabetes

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that a defect in an enzyme called APT1 interferes with the ability to secrete insulin, contributing to the development of Type 2 diabetes in people who are overweight or obese. In this microscopic image of the surface of an insulin-secreting beta cell from a mouse with diabetes, granules containing insulin are green; granules containing a protein affected by APT1 are red; and the yellow granules are those that release excess insulin due to a defect in APT1.

Many with elevated insulin levels also have defects in an enzyme key to fatty acid processing...

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