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Animal cells share some qualities with plant cells, but one key feature ours lack is a rigid cell wall. While this provides structure for plants, it’s also something scientists are increasingly looking at for use in new materials, cellulose technology and, now, insulin delivery. Led by Henry Daniell from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Dental Medicine, researchers have created a promising plant-based insulin, containing the three peptides that occur naturally in insulin, which can also be ingested orally. Just as important as the genetic material on the inside, the plant cell walls are key to the drug's efficacy. Their...

Credit: Fussenegger Lab / ETH Zurich / Annelisa Leinbach Swiss researchers have developed a sugar-powered implant that automatically produces insulin when blood glucose levels are high — potentially giving people with diabetes an easier, less-painful way to manage their condition. Diabetes management: For people with type 1 diabetes (T1D), the body doesn’t produce enough (or any) insulin, a hormone that converts blood sugar into energy. To prevent their blood glucose levels from being dangerously high, they need regular injections of synthetic insulin. People who manage their diabetes manually must give themselves these painful injections multiple times a day. Those who...

Artificial Pancreas Successfully Trialed for Use by Type 2 Diabetes Patients Scientists at the University of Cambridge have successfully trialed an artificial pancreas for use by patients living with type 2 diabetes. The device – powered by an algorithm developed at the University of Cambridge – doubled the amount of time patients were in the target range for glucose compared to standard treatment and halved the time spent experiencing high glucose levels. Around 415 million people worldwide are estimated to be living with type 2 diabetes, which costs around $760 billion in annual global health expenditure. According to Diabetes UK,...

New research points to a novel way to prevent the death of insulin-producing beta cells A study led by researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has homed in on a newly discovered molecular mechanism that could prevent insulin resistance in type 2 diabetics. The research indicates disrupting the expression of a certain protein could protect beta cells and prevent patients from becoming insulin resistant. Type 2 diabetes can develop when insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas become dysfunctional, often following long-term high blood glucose levels. Eventually, those crucial beta cells begin to die, with the body...

Researchers have invented a new analytical method that sheds light on an enduring mystery regarding type 2 diabetes: Why some obese patients develop the disease and others don't. For some patients, their body does not properly respond to insulin—it resists the effects of insulin, the hormone produced by the pancreas that opens the door for sugar to enter cells. In the later disease stages, when the pancreas is exhausted, patients don't produce enough insulin to maintain normal glucose levels. In either case, sugar builds up in the bloodstream and impairs many major organs, sometimes to disabling or life-threatening degrees. A...

Around one in twenty people in Scotland diagnosed with type 2 diabetes achieve remission from the disease. This suggests people are achieving remission outside of research trials and without bariatric surgery. Recognising individuals in remission, following their progress, and better understanding the factors involved in remission could lead to improved initiatives to help others. There were an estimated 463 million people with diabetes in the world in 2019, of whom 90-95% have type 2 diabetes, and these numbers are rising due to ageing populations, growing obesity and sedentary lifestyles. Some people with type 2 diabetes have achieved remission after bariatric...

The 51-year-old mother of five is in kidney failure, a result of her Type 2 diabetes. Lucia (whose last name has been withheld at her request because of her family’s immigration status) is one of an estimated 6,500 undocumented immigrants in the United States who are living with end-stage renal disease, She feels grateful for the limited care she receives here in the United States, because she is acutely aware of the reality that she would not be entitled to any care in her native Mexico and would almost certainly have died by now.

A drug-free approach might be the best treatment we have for America's most ubiquitous lifestyle disease.Type II diabetes is one of America's most ubiquitous—and expensive—chronic diseases. Patients often require a suite of pharmaceutical products to manage high blood glucose levels, and the complications that arise over the long term, ranging from loss of vision and limbs to kidney failure and coronary artery disease, strain the resources of patients, their families, and the health care system. The financial strain on insurance companies, employers, and Medicaid and Medicare is even more enormous. A 2013 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine...

Data shows the number of adults with the disease has risen by 1.5 million in the past ten years, with GPs now reporting 3.6 million patients aged 17 and older on their records. There has been an increase of 137,000 in the past year alone – largely due to an explosion in cases of Type 2 diabetes. Experts warn that the debilitating condition is now reaching crisis proportions. Every day in the UK, 65 people die prematurely from diabetes while hundreds more battle lifechanging complications

When mice with the human equivalent of Type 2 diabetes were injected with the protein FGF1, their blood sugar levels returned to normal over two days. Just one injection of the protein both regulated these levels and even helped reverse insulin insensitivity – the underlying cause of diabetes. Published in the journal Nature, the research on FGF1 could revolutionize diabetes treatment. In addition to being effective against diabetes, the protein has several advantages over current diabetes drugs. It does not result in dangerous side effects seen with other diabetes drugs, such as heart problems, weight gain, or hypoglycemia. Additionally, FGF1...

New research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine adds clarity to the connection. The study published on-line April 10th in the journal Nature Immunology finds that saturated fatty acids but not the unsaturated type can activate immune cells to produce an inflammatory protein, called interleukin-1beta. CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – A diet high in saturated fat is a key contributor to type 2 diabetes, a major health threat worldwide. Several decades ago scientists noticed that people with type 2 diabetes have overly active immune responses, leaving their bodies rife with inflammatory chemicals. In addition, people...

Reviewed By Elizabeth Klodas, MD, FACC 13 Million Americans Are Exposed to Dangerous Levels of Arsenic Through Drinking Water Exposure to arsenic, typically through drinking water, is linked to diabetes, according a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Thirteen million Americans — and millions more worldwide — are exposed to drinking water contaminated with more inorganic arsenic than the Environmental Protection Agency has deemed safe. The EPA standard is 10 micrograms per liter. Researchers, led by Ana Navas-Acien, MD, PhD, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health, studied 788 adults who had their urine tested...

Ahmedabad: There is good news for diabetes patients as there may be a stem cell cure for the disease. Dr H L Trivedi and his team from Ahmedabad claim that they have discovered a cell that is present in human fat that can produce insulin, when cultivated. "If we could transplant stem cells which have the ability to cure diabetes, then it's the final of final and ultimate of ultimate as far as cure for diabetes is concerned,” says Dr Trivedi, who is the director of Institute of Kidney Diseases, The miracle stem cell can be transplanted into the liver,...

Source: University at Buffalo Date: July 13, 2007 Selenium Supplements May Increase The Risk Of Type 2 Diabetes Science Daily — Selenium, an antioxidant included in multivitamin tablets thought to have a possible protective effect against the development of type 2 diabetes, may actually increase the risk of developing the disease, an analysis by researchers at the University at Buffalo has shown. Results of a randomized clinical trial using 200 micrograms of selenium alone showed that 55 percent more cases of type 2 diabetes developed among participants randomized to receive selenium than in those who received a placebo pill. Results...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Coffee drinkers have a substantially lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than people who abstain from the beverage, a new study shows. This "striking" protective effect was seen in former coffee drinkers as well, Besa Smith and co-investigators at the University of California San Diego in La Jolla report. "The growing body of literature definitely suggests strongly...that there is something there," she told Reuters Health in an interview. Just what that something is isn't clear, but it's probably not caffeine, she said, because the effect has also been observed with decaffeinated coffee. Smith and...

(AP) Having one type of diabetes is bad enough, but two? Doctors are seeing a new phenomenon dubbed double diabetes that makes it harder to diagnose and treat patients — especially children. The mix can strike at any age, and comes in various forms: Children who depend on insulin injections because of Type 1 diabetes gain weight and then get the Type 2 form in which their bodies become insulin resistant, for example. Or someone with classic Type 2 symptoms isn't responding to therapy, and tests reveal they also are developing the insulin-dependent form of the disease. Or they may...

WASHINGTON - Type 2 diabetics got a new option to help control their blood sugar Friday, a drug derived from the saliva of the Gila monster — but one that must be injected twice a day. The Food and Drug Administration approved Byetta, known chemically as exenatide, the first in a new class of medications for Type 2 diabetes — but for now, it's supposed to be used together with older diabetes drugs, not alone. Makers Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly & Co. said the prescription drug would begin selling by June 1, but wouldn't provide a price. Some 18...