Type 2 diabetes is a very troubling illness which afflicts many people. Rutgers Today reported on Oct. 5, 2014 that there have been encouraging results from attacking type 2 diabetes from a new direction. Researchers have discovered a modified form of the drug niclosamide, which is presently used to eliminate intestinal parasites, may offer a key to fighting this disease at its source.
Approximately 28 million Americans are suffering from type 2 diabetes according to the American Diabetes Association. The present medications being prescribed for this condition only treat symptoms and not the root cause of the illness. A new study led by Victor Shengkan Jin, an associate professor of pharmacology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, shows promising evidence that a modified form of niclosamide may hit at the root cause of the disease.
The number of Americans suffering from type 2 diabetes is staggering. It has been projected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that 40 percent of all Americans who are alive at this time will develop type 2 diabetes. This type of diabetes is also known as adult onset diabetes. In this disorder although the body produces insulin which would generally keep blood sugar under control, the body does not produce enough insulin or the body’s ability to use that insulin is compromised.
Jin says a primary cause of insulin resistance is the accumulation of excess fat in liver cells and muscle tissue. The process wherein insulin would ordinarily cause body tissues to correctly absorb glucose and use it as fuel is disrupted by the fat. This leads to excess glucose in the bloodstream. The high concentrations of glucose can damage tissues throughout the body. Blindness, kidney damage, cardiovascular diseases and other very serious health problems can than occur.
The researchers sought a safe and practical way to diminish fat content in the liver. They discovered that the drug niclosamide ethanolamine salt (NEN) burned the excess fat in liver cells. Eliminating the interference of fat in liver and muscle tissue serves as the key to restoring the cells’ ability to respond to insulin in a proper way.
It is significant that the drug used is a modified form of a medication which the FDA has already approved for human use. This was a deliberate choice by the researchers. Jin says they were searching for a safe and practical compound which could be used to deplete fat inside cells. They searched the literature and found an approved drug which does in parasitic worms what they wanted to do in liver cells.
Although the outcome is not certain at this time Jin says the positive changes he witnessed in mice are very encouraging. This study has been published online by the journal Nature Medicine. Niclosamide ethanolamine salt (NEN) has been found to offer a potentially new and practical pharmacological approach for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
