Scientists Demonstrate New Strategy for Treating Diabetes

Scientists have developed a promising new strategy for treating human type 2 diabetes which affects more than 200 million people worldwide. In a mouse study, scientists at Mayo Clinic Florida showed that a different approach could also be effective for treating diabetes — namely, blocking the breakdown of insulin, after it is secreted from the pancreas. To compensate for the insensitivity to insulin, many diabetes drugs work by boosting insulin levels; for example, by injecting more insulin or by increasing the amount of insulin secreted from the pancreas. Insulin levels in the blood reflect the balance between how much is secreted and how fast it is broken down. Blocking the breakdown of insulin is simply an alternative method for achieving the same goal as many existing diabetes therapies. The researchers tested this idea by studying mice in which insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) was “knocked out,” or deleted genetically. The findings suggest that drugs that inhibit IDE could be useful in treating diabetes. PLoS ONE, June 9 2011