[size=16pt]Medscape Medical News

Another Injectable Treatment for Diabetes on the Horizon
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By Lisa Nainggolan
July 16, 2014

The tantalizing possibility of an injection to help normalize blood glucose without any of the side effects normally associated with such treatment inched closer today, when a group of academic researchers published novel findings in mice that may one day lead to a "shot" for diabetes in humans.

The scientists discovered an unexpected insulin-sensitizing role for human fibroblast growth factor 1 (FGF-1) when it was injected into a group of a dozen mice that were genetically susceptible to obesity and/or diabetes.

Despite there being a whole family of FGF proteins, "only FGF-1 had this unique ability," explained coauthor Michael Downes, PhD, of the Gene Expression Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California. "This was a surprise for the whole field; it is a novel finding," he told Medscape Medical News.

And what's more, the effects appeared to be independent of the mitogenic activity of FGF-1, and the protein did not cause any of the adverse effects normally associated with glucose-lowering therapies for diabetes, such as hypoglycemia and weight gain. Such a therapy could one day replace currently employed injectable diabetes drugs, such as the glucagonlike peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists and oral medicines used to treat type 2 diabetes, and may even be used in those with type 1 diabetes to reduce their reliance on exogenous insulin, the researchers postulate.

However, Dr. Downes cautioned that the work in rodents will first require replication in monkey studies before moving on to human trials. "I would say give us a year or two to delivery....This is not ready for use in humans yet; we have to do the proper research first," he observed.

The work is published online July 16 in Nature by Jae Myoung Suh, PhD, also of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and colleagues.

More at/source : http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/828390?src=rss

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