06 Dec Platypus Venom May Lead To Better Understanding of Diabetes
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Platypus
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Platypus and Echidnas are the only representative of the unique group of egg-laying mammals. These peculiar animals are human’s most distant relatives amongst living mammals and they have allow unprecedented insights into the evolution of mammals. Many aspect of the biology of these extraordinary mammals are unusual. One of the most remarkable changes is that monotremes lack a functional stomach and lost many genes involved in digestion. This sparked our interest to investigate the Insulin release pathway as a key aspect of blood glucose regulation which is affected in Diabetes.
When we identified and characterised the hormone that is central to the release of insulin after a meal (called GLP-1)we were surprised to see it active in gut where is should be but also in the venom gland of platypus and echidna.
When we investigated the monotreme GLP-1 further we discovered that this hormone is not degraded in human serum. This is exciting as the human GLP-1 is degraded very rapidly (within minutes) and a major treatment approach in type 2 diabetes is to develop long-lasting GLP-1 variants like the one we discovered in platypus and echidna.
Surprisingly we also found that platypus and echidna have themselves developed an alternative path to break down their own GLP-1. This suggest that a long-lasting GLP-1 evolved in platypus and echidna because of its function in venom (several species have components in their venom that affects or resembles Insulin function). On the other hand platypus uses its venom during breeding season probably to fight off other males in competition for females. Therefore their ability to degrade this more stable GLP-1 could be a response to a “GLP-1 overdoes” by other males.
This is a remarkable evolutionary tug of war that we think has shaped changes in GLP-1 stability and also function. Still GLP-1 can function and trigger insulin release.
MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?
Response: There are two main messages.
One is that this unique evolutionary tug of war seems to have acted on one gene which serves two functions (as insulin release hormone secreted in gut and as venom component) leading to specific changes. For example we think that the stability is a change that made this hormone more potent as a venom component. As platypus uses its venom during breeding season and most likely to fend off other males, in response to the envenomation they evolved an alternate mechanism to break it down that has happened specifically in monotremes (humans have not evolved that ability)
MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Response: GLP-1 is a hormone that has many function and some are not well understood yet. We are keen to explore how the changes that occurred in monotreme GLP-1 have affected these functions. Future experiments in medical model organisms like mouse will now be important to explore further any potential application in diabetes.
MedicalResearch.com: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Response: This is a interdisciplinary study involving, geneticists, biochemists, physiologists from 5 different Universities (Adelaide, Flinders, Federation, Melbourne and Monash Universities) that all got together to donate their time and expertise to do this works because they were equally fascinated by the differences in platypus and echidna and wanted to find out how this has affected the function of this important molecule.
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Last Updated on December 6, 2016 by Marie Benz MD FAAD