Australian researchers at the University of Adelaide have discovered that ways to process and regulate insulin in two of the most emblematic animals in their country can be the key to new treatments for type 2 diabetes in humans.
The Ornitorrinco and the Equidna retain a hormone in their digestive system that serves to regulate their blood glucose levels, but, curiously, it also allows them to produce a powerful poison.
In the case of the first species, it is one of the few mammals to produce poison.It injects it through the spurs into their hind legs and although it produces extreme pain, it is not lethal for humans.On the contrary, science now reveals that its study could be rather beneficial.
The findings, published in the journal Nature Reports by a team led by Frank Grutzner, point out that the hormone, known as the-1 peptide-similar to glucagon (LPG-1), is normally secreted in the intestine of both humans and animals, stimulatingInsulin release to reduce blood glucose.However, it is typically degraded in minutes in patients with type 2 diabetes, so your action is not enough to stabilize blood sugar.It is for this reason that these people require medication that enhances the prolonged action of the hormone.
"Our team has discovered that monotumes-the ornitorrinco and Equidna-have evolved changes in the GLP-1 hormone that make it resistant to rapid degradation normally observed in humans," says Grutzner.
And it is that these animals process this substance differently, inside "there seems to be a kind of molecular war between the function of the LPG-1, which occurs in the intestine, but surprisingly also in its poison," says the scientist.
The latter is the key to the discovery: when it is in the poison, the shape of the LPG-1 is stable, unlike when the substance is segregated by the digestive system (that of the animal and that of humans).This evolution of the substance is the one that opens the way to new and most effective treatments of type 2 diabetes.
Diabetes is a chronic disease produced when the pancreas does not secret enough insulin or when the body cannot absorb it effectively, which leads to a greater concentration of blood glucose (hyperglycemia), in the light that glucose ceases to be processed.
According to the World Health Organization, in 2014 there were 422 million people with diabetes worldwide (a serious increase compared to the figure of 108 million registered in 1980).In the case of type 2 diabetes, it is perfectly preventable, although there can be a genetic predisposition to it.Good food and regular exercise are the keys.
A job last month showed that US adults regular consumers of sugary drinks (approximately a daily can) have 46% more likely to develop prediabetes, compared to those who record a lower or no consumption of these soft drinks, at least toover a period of 14 years.This, according to a recent epidemiological study conducted by scientists from the Jean Mayer Center for Human Nutrition Research on Aging (HNRCA), from the University of Tufts.
