**Diabetes breakthrough ??

[Guest guest]

>

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=

> a042812e-492c-4f07-8245-8a598ab5d1bf & k=63970

> or

> http://tinyurl.com/yxo3bt

>

> Diabetes breakthrough

>

> Toronto scientists cure disease in mice

>

> Tom Blackwell, National Post Published: Friday,

> December 15, 2006

>

>

> In a discovery that has stunned even those behind

> it, scientists at a

> Toronto hospital say they have proof the body's

> nervous system helps

> trigger diabetes, opening the door to a potential

> near-cure of the

> disease that affects millions of Canadians.

>

> Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight

> after researchers

> injected a substance to counteract the effect of

> malfunctioning pain

> neurons in the pancreas.

>

> " I couldn't believe it, " said Dr. Salter,

> a pain expert at the

> Hospital for Sick Children and one of the

> scientists. " Mice with

> diabetes suddenly didn't have diabetes any more. "

>

> The researchers caution they have yet to confirm

> their findings in

> people, but say they expect results from human

> studies within a year or

> so. Any treatment that may emerge to help at least

> some patients would

> likely be years away from hitting the market.

>

> But the excitement of the team from Sick Kids,

> whose work is being

> published today in the journal Cell, is almost

> palpable.

>

> " I've never seen anything like it, " said Dr. Hans

> Dosch, an

> immunologist at the hospital and a leader of the

> studies. " In my career,

> this is unique. "

>

> Their conclusions upset conventional wisdom that

> Type 1 diabetes, the

> most serious form of the illness that typically

> first appears in

> childhood, was solely caused by auto-immune

> responses -- the body's

> immune system turning on itself.

>

> They also conclude that there are far more

> similarities than previously

> thought between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, and

> that nerves likely play

> a role in other chronic inflammatory conditions,

> such as asthma and

> Crohn's disease.

>

> The " paradigm-changing " study opens " a novel,

> exciting door to address

> one of the diseases with large societal impact, "

> said Dr. Christian

> Stohler, a leading U.S. pain specialist and dean

> of dentistry at the

> University of land, who has reviewed the work.

>

> " The treatment and diagnosis of neuropathic

> diseases is poised to take a

> dramatic leap forward because of the impressive

> research. "

>

> About two million Canadians suffer from diabetes,

> 10% of them with Type

> 1, contributing to 41,000 deaths a year.

>

> Insulin replacement therapy is the only treatment

> of Type 1, and cannot

> prevent many of the side effects, from heart

> attacks to kidney failure.

>

> In Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas does not produce

> enough insulin to

> shift glucose into the cells that need it. In Type

> 2 diabetes, the

> insulin that is produced is not used effectively

> -- something called

> insulin resistance -- also resulting in poor

> absorption of glucose.

>

> The problems stem partly from inflammation -- and

> eventual death -- of

> insulin-producing islet cells in the pancreas.

>

> Dr. Dosch had concluded in a 1999 paper that there

> were surprising

> similarities between diabetes and multiple

> sclerosis, a central nervous

> system disease. His interest was also piqued by

> the presence around the

> insulin-producing islets of an " enormous " number

> of nerves, pain neurons

> primarily used to signal the brain that tissue has

> been damaged.

>

> Suspecting a link between the nerves and diabetes,

> he and Dr. Salter

> used an old experimental trick -- injecting

> capsaicin, the active

> ingredient in hot chili peppers, to kill the

> pancreatic sensory nerves

> in mice that had an equivalent of Type 1 diabetes.

>

> " Then we had the biggest shock of our lives, " Dr.

> Dosch said. Almost

> immediately, the islets began producing insulin

> normally " It was a shock

> ? really out of left field, because nothing in the

> literature was saying

> anything about this. "

>

> It turns out the nerves secrete neuropeptides that

> are instrumental in

> the proper functioning of the islets. Further

> study by the team, which

> also involved the University of Calgary and the

> Laboratory in

> Maine, found that the nerves in diabetic mice were

> releasing too little

> of the neuropeptides, resulting in a " vicious

> cycle " of stress on the

> islets.

>

> So next they injected the neuropeptide " substance

> P " in the pancreases

> of diabetic mice, a demanding task given the tiny

> size of the rodent

> organs. The results were dramatic.

>

> The islet inflammation cleared up and the diabetes

> was gone. Some have

> remained in that state for as long as four months,

> with just one injection.

>

> They also discovered that their treatments curbed

> the insulin resistance

> that is the hallmark of Type 2 diabetes, and that

> insulin resistance is

> a major factor in Type 1 diabetes, suggesting the

> two illnesses are

> quite similar.

>

> While pain scientists have been receptive to the

> research, immunologists

> have voiced skepticism at the idea of the nervous

> system playing such a

> major role in the disease. Editors of Cell put the

> Toronto researchers

> through vigorous review to prove the validity of

> their conclusions,

> though an editorial in the publication gives a

> positive review of the work.

>

> " It will no doubt cause a great deal of

> consternation, " said Dr. Salter

> about his paper.

>

> The researchers are now setting out to confirm

> that the connection

> between sensory nerves and diabetes holds true in

> humans. If it does,

> they will see if their treatments have the same

> effects on people as

> they did on mice.

>

> Nothing is for sure, but " there is a great deal of

> promise, " Dr. Salter

> said.