UU Scientists Developing Breakthrough Diabetes Drugs
University of Ulster scientists are developing innovative drugs that could represent important new therapeutic tools to help ease the burden of diabetes worldwide. The news comes as a UN World Health Organisation report identifies diabetes as one of the major health issues facing the world in the 21st century.
The research team at UU have discovered that modified-forms of GIP, a naturally occurring molecule produced by the body, can combat key symptoms of diabetes. This stimulated the formation of a new company to develop production of new anti-diabetic agents.
Current statistics report some 150 million diagnosed cases of diabetes worldwide, and that figure is set to double within 20 years, according Dr Neville McClenaghan, a prime mover in the new company Diabetica Limited.
"The holy grail of diabetes treatment is safe and effective management of blood glucose. We believe that novel molecules arising from our platform GIP technology should provide effective new tools to help individuals better control the condition known as Type 2 diabetes," he said.
"That's really what physicians are looking for at the minute - new drugs that offer improvements or enhancement over current drugs."
Diabetes is a complex metabolic disorder clinically defined by high blood glucose levels resulting from a relative or absolute absence of insulin-production coupled with defective insulin action in body tissues. The latter is a defining characteristic of the 'metabolic syndrome' and is an important link between Type 2 diabetes and other conditions including obesity, heart disease and stroke.
In diabetes there is a breakdown in the person's ability to regulate blood-glucose levels, and thus pharmacological treatments are required to bring the blood glucose levels back down to safe levels.
The main pharmacological approaches to the treatment of diabetes are focussed on replacing insulin by injection or the use of drugs, which either increase circulating insulin or enhance its action on insulin-sensitive tissues.
"Diabetes and the related conditions, metabolic syndrome and obesity, are reaching epidemic proportions and thus are major healthcare challenges. This clearly prompts the development of new and innovative approaches for effective management and treatment of this complex disease" said Dr McClenaghan.
Years of research by the team at UU have culminated in two distinct therapeutic products developed from the gut peptide, GIP, which is released into the blood following eating. Preclinical studies have revealed that both therapeutic products exhibit potent glucose-lowering actions mediated by either increasing circulating insulin or enhancing insulin action.
"We have discovered that strategic bio-engineering of the GIP molecule can generate stable long-acting forms with two principal modes of anti-diabetic action and have patent-protected the technology," he said.
"Diabetica's therapeutic GIP products have generated a lot of interest. GIP-based therapies are exciting new approaches which offer considerable advantages over existing and emerging diabetes/obesity therapies, which suffer from shortcomings such as poor efficacy, difficult dosing regimens and adverse side effects. This is a very exciting time for Diabetica as our two novel GIP drugs - Incretide and Metalog - could provide a major advance in the effective management of diabetes, metabolic syndrome and obesity."
The co-founders of Diabetica Limited - Professor Peter Flatt, Professor Finbarr O'Harte and Dr Neville McClenaghan - established the Coleraine-based biotechnology company last year as a first step to achieving a sound commercial footing for product development.
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