23 Jan Potential Drug Targets To Prevent Hypoglycemia in Diabetics Identified

Posted at 20:18h in Author Interviews, Diabetes, Nature, University of Michigan by

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Martin G. Myers, Jr., M.D., M.P.H. Director, Michigan Diabetes Research & Training Center Associate Professor of Internal Medicine - MEND Division Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology Marilyn H. Vincent Professor of Diabetes Research and Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Martin G. Myers, Jr., M.D., M.P.H.
Director, Michigan Diabetes Research & Training Center
Associate Professor of Internal Medicine – MEND Division
Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology
Marilyn H. Vincent Professor of Diabetes Research and
Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge

Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Dr. Myers: Diabetic people who take insulin to treat their diabetes are at risk of low blood sugar, which can cause serious consequences (including death).  This risk increases as blood sugar control improves, and so this risk limits the ability to control blood sugar.  The body has a system (the counter-regulatory response) that acts to prevent blood sugar from going too low, but this is often impaired in diabetic patients.

We identified a brain circuit that senses and responds to falling blood sugar, and which acts to increase blood sugar.  Furthermore, we showed that the hormone leptin modulates the sensitivity of this circuit, and identified the neurotransmitter (CCK) that acts in this circuit to increase blood sugar.  Thus, we have identified several potential drug targets that could be used to prevent or treat low blood sugar in insulin-treated diabetics.  If we are able to pharmacologically modulate the activity of this brain circuit, it could improve the treatment of these patients.

Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Dr. Myers: There are two main things that we need to do with this information.

First, we need to better understand how we might target this counter-regulatory system for pharmacotherapy.

Second, we need to understand the nature of the neurons that this prototype circuits interacts with, as the other neurons within this circuit will certainly be very important to study as we seek to understand why diabetic patients often mount an inadequate counter-regulatory response to low blood sugar, and because these other neurons could also be targets for therapy

Citation:

Leptin-inhibited PBN neurons enhance responses to hypoglycemia in negative energy balance

 Jonathan N Flak,Christa M Patterson,Alastair S Garfield,Giuseppe D’Agostino,Paulette B Goforth,Amy K Sutton, Paige A Malec,Jenny-Marie T Wong,Mark Germani,Justin C Jones,Michael Rajala, Leslie Satin, Christopher J Rhodes, David P Olson Robert T Kennedy, Lora K Heisler & Martin G Myers Jr Nature Neuroscience 17,1744–1750 (2014) doi:10.1038/nn.3861

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Last Updated on January 23, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD

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