Swiss researchers make diabetes treatment breakthrough

Swiss scientists have developed a promising new therapy that targets the progression of diabetes type 2, the most common form of the disease, Swiss Radio International (SRI) reported on Friday.

The results of the international study, led by Marc Donath, professor of endocrinology and diabetes at Zurich University Hospital, were published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday, according to the report.

Several companies are already interested in the treatment - the first of its kind for type 2 diabetes - with a drug estimated to come onto the market in three to five years' time.

Type 2, which affects 90 percent of diabetics, is on the rise worldwide due to health and lifestyle factors, such as being overweight.

In the study, Donath and his team found that daily injections of anakinra - a drug also used to treat rheumatoid arthritis - helped patients by targeting a cause of the disease.

"Until now we had treatments which weren't able really to stop progression of the disease and here we are interfering with a mechanism responsible for it," Donath told SRI.

Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body cannot produce enough insulin or use it effectively. Insulin, a hormone produced in the pancreas, is needed to transport sugar from the blood to cells, where it is used for energy.

Insulin-producing beta cells are sometimes destroyed in type 2 diabetes. Donath and his team already knew that a substance called interleukin-1 beta was responsible for this in type 2.

Anakinra is an interleukin-1-receptor antagonist - it blocks the action of the interleukin-1 beta.

To test the effects of the drug in type 2 diabetes, 36 people received a once-daily placebo injection and 34 people received a daily dose of 100 mg of anakinra for 13 weeks.

Scientists found that glucose levels were lower and the secretion of insulin better in the group that had taken anakinra. Patients also showed reduced systematic inflammation in the body - a contributory factor for diabetes-related complications, such as heart problems.

The drug was found to have few side effects and Donath and his team are planning to conduct follow-up studies.

The discovery could help fight a disease that is becoming increasingly common, said Donath. Around 500,000 people are said to have diabetes in Switzerland.

Source: Xinhua