A cure for diabetes?
About 300
million people have diabetes worldwide. It is one of the leading causes of
death. Now, new research from Cornell University in New York (USA) might have
found the solution to this health problem through a probiotic pill that lowers
blood glucose levels using a common bacterium found in the human gut. The work
has been published in the journal Diabetes.
In
diabetes, the blood glucose levels increased more than normal, what is known as
hyperglycemia, which can cause a number of complications that may even stroke,
heart disease and nerve damage. The researchers are convinced that their work
is another step to reach a definitive cure of this disease.
For
experiment, they designed a common strain of human gut bacteria called
Lactobacillus (probiotic that is normally used to treat Crohn's disease,
diarrhea or irritable bowel syndrome) to secrete one glucagon-like 1 peptide, a
hormone that releases insulin in response to food. After administered orally
this probiotic modified in a group of diabetic rats for 90 days, rodents
reduced their blood glucose levels up to 30%.
According
to experts "the amount of time we need humans to reduce glucose levels
after a meal is the same as in a normal rat, and the results correspond to the
amount of glucose in the blood, as it would a normally functioning pancreas.
What makes the modified probiotic is to move the center glucose control in the
pancreas to the upper intestine, "says John March, leader of the study.
The next
part of the experiment will to try higher doses of this probiotic laboratory in
diabetic rats in order to see if it is possible to completely reverse diabetes.
At the same time, they are also working in order to create a pill for human
use. If everything is progressing well, diabetics could soon have a pill that
should be taken every morning to control their diabetes.
