Potential Diabetes Cure Trial Moves Forward

the Renal and Urology News take:

Scientists who have previously cured diabetes in mice using a common blood pressure medication are now moving forward with a clinical trial for human application.

The study, conducted by Anath Shalev MD, and fellow researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Diabetes Center previously studied the effects of the drug verapamil in mice with established diabetes. They demonstrated how high blood sugar causes the overproduction of a protein called TXNIP, which is increased in beta cells as a response to diabetes. Too much TXNIP prevents insulin production and contributes to diabetes.

Through use of the drug verapamil, which is already indicated for the treatment of high blood pressure, they were able to lower TXNIP levels in beta cells to the point where presence of diabetes was completely eradicated.

Dr. Shalev believes that these findings, unlike previous studies that failed after progressing to the human clinical trial phase, have the potential for application in humans due to this unique approach in targeting TXNIP.

“TXNIP, is extremely well-conserved across species, almost identical in rat, mice, and human,” she said.

The forthcoming placebo-controlled human trial (“The Repurposing of Verapamil as a Beta cell Survival Therapy in Type 1 Diabetes”) will begin recruitment in early 2015, and is looking to recruit 52 people within 3 months of having received a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes.