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In part 3 of this Exclusive Interview, Dr. Mark Huising talks with Diabetes in Control Publisher Steve Freed during the ADA meeting in San Diego, California about the impact of diabetes medications on delta cell activity.
Dr. Mark O. Huising, PhD, is an assistant professor at UC Davis in California. His work has been focused on the evolution of immune and endocrine systems in early vertebrates.
Transcript of this video segment:
Steve Freed: Have you looked at some of the medications and how they react on the delta cells? For example, the GLP-1 drugs that were looking at possible regeneration of beta cells.
Mark Huising: Right, so delta cells in many ways resemble beta cells. There’s differences and we’re starting to appreciate them too. But the basic principle, the basic mechanistic building plan of the delta cell is the same as a beta cell and that is you need a way to sense glucose. That sensing of glucose causes the closure of what we call KTP channels. Sulfonylureas target those. So they will also target delta cells the same way that they will target beta cells and then the closure of KTP channels causes depolarization, the opening of voltage gated calcium channels, and these are again the same channels between delta cells and beta cells. The difference between delta cells and beta cells is more on the level of which receptors are expressed by the two different cells. For example, the incretin hormone, going through GLP-1 receptor, will probably also activate delta cells, but the incretin hormone receptor levels are much higher on a beta cell and then different receptors for example the receptor for urocortin 3 which is the same family, it’s a close relative to the incretin receptor, that one is not expressed by beta cells but it’s expressed by delta cells. The mechanisms by which they promote hormone secretion are actually the same between delta cells and beta cells so the main difference is the repertoire of the receptors that these cells have which dictate what signals they respond to and that’s how delta cells respond to different signals than beta cells.