A novel molecule that will control not only diabetes but also prevent abnormalities in cholesterol levels - Latest Drug News

The Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI) has come up with a novel molecule that will control not only diabetes but also prevent abnormalities in cholesterol levels which lead to heart ailments in diabetics.

“Heart and kidney are the two main organs that get affected by diabetes,” said Dr Atul Kumar, a scientist at CDRI. Though kidney problems only occur after prolonged uncontrolled diabetes, heart problem arises with increase in level of triglyceride, a type of lipid. “We have got encouraging results with the molecule to control triglyceride and other lipids and hyperglycemia, the disorder of increased glucose in blood responsible for diabetes,” said Kumar. His research has found a place in December’s Nature India, one of the e-magazines of Nature Publishing Group.

“Research on the methodology of the new synthetic molecule is still on,” Kumar said. But test results on animals show a promising effect on both hyperglycemia and increased lipid levels. “We came up with this molecule by combining the structure of organic molecules known to have anti-hyperglycemic characters and anti-dyslipidemic characters.”

The synthetic molecule targets an enzyme found in body called PTP1B, which is responsible for non-activation of insulin.

Insulin, the enzyme responsible for glucose-related metabolism, is inhibited by PTP1B in Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes (Type 2). “The PTP1B was known for some time as a target for diabetes but till now no drug was made to target it,” he said. The molecule, a polyhydroquinoline, was structured keeping in mind the enzyme so it inhibits the formation of PTP1B.

“The human body stores glucose in the form of glycogen. In Type 2 diabetes, another enzyme called glycogen phosphorylase inhibits this process of conversion of glucose to glycogen, because of which free glucose remains in blood, increasing the blood sugar level,” explained Kumar. “The new molecule also targets glycogen phosphorylase.”

Stressing the relevance of the molecule, Kumar said: “On the one hand diabetes is fast becoming an epidemic and on the other, drugs for it have been exhausted ¿ the reason why diabetics need to shift on multiple drugs.”

Source: www.drugscontrol.org