Diabetes In Control. A free weekly diabetes newsletter for Medical Professionals. News and information for Medical Professionals.
Letter from the Editor
The phrase “If I had a dollar for every time….I would be a millionaire” is used often these days, and nowhere has it been more true than when talking about a cure for diabetes.
A quick search on our website shows over 100 articles written about a cure for diabetes.
This week our publisher, Steve Freed, takes a serious look at what has changed in the search for a cure, and why a 5 year timeline is now realistic.
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We can make a difference!
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Dave Joffe
Editor-in-chief
Newsflash: FDA Approves Semaglutide for Reduction of CV Disease Risk
The FDA has approved the indication ― reduction of cardiovascular (CV) disease risk — for the injectable formulation of the GLP-1 agonist semaglutide (Ozempic, Novo Nordisk) in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Semaglutide had a significant 26% lower risk for the primary composite outcome of first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal MI, or nonfatal stroke. For the oral semaglutide (Rybelsus), they found that it had a 21% reduction in three-component MACE.
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Did You Know: How Close Are We To A Type 1 Cure? Five Years?
We have been promised a cure in five years for the last 40 years, until we realized that type 1 diabetes is a more complicated disease than anyone imagined. But now we are starting to see some exciting results suggesting that a cure in 5 years is more realistic. Because type 1 diabetes has been incurable and has serious lifelong health consequences, prevention is a major research goal. These new possible therapies in research are getting us closer to a possible cure.
We now know that Inflammatory agents deplete growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) and kill susceptible beta cells to cause type 1 diabetes. Current research has shown us that adding back GDF15 protects beta cells in treated mice.
When the researchers measured levels of GDF15 in pancreas tissue from people with diabetes, they found the protein was depleted in their malfunctioning islet cells. But the key piece of evidence emerged when the scientists treated non-obese diabetic mice with GDF15, and it reduced the development of diabetes by 53%. “From the results, it was hypothesized that reduced GDF15 was not a good thing for islet survival, and indeed that was the case,” said Raghu Mirmira, a study principal investigator. “This work opens the way for us to consider these sorts of ‘islet protective factors’ as therapies to prevent or reverse type 1 diabetes. This approach differs substantially from current thinking that targets the immune system. While GDF15 may be one new therapy, we identified other proteins that may work in conjunction with GDF15, so this work represents a treasure-trove of information that can be mined for new therapies,” said Mirmira. The researchers are now working on the idea that low levels of GDF15 in islets may somehow be playing a proactive role in instigating the autoimmune attack that ultimately kills them.
Mirmira, until recently, served as a professor of pediatric diabetes and director of the Center for Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases at Indiana University School of Medicine. He is now a professor of medicine in the Section of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism at the University of Chicago. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Cell Metabolism Jan 2020
Steve Freed, R.Ph, CDE, Publisher
Diabetes in Control gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the following pharmacy doctoral candidates in the preparation of this week’s newsletters:
Usif Darwish, PharmD Candidate, Florida A&M University, College of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences
Keri Hames, PharmD Candidate, Florida A&M University, College of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences
Emma Kammerer, L|E|C|O|M Bradenton School of Pharmacy, PharmD Candidate
George McConnell, PharmD. Candidate, LECOM School of Pharmacy
Nour Salhab, Pharm.D. Candidate, USF College of Pharmacy
Sandra Zaki, PharmD Candidate, Florida A&M University
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Steve and Dave
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