Introduction
News of advancements in diabetes diagnosis, treatment, and cure has been frequently reported in the media during the past several years. This kind of information may be helpful if it is carefully contrasted. However, on occasion, it breeds an excessive amount of sentimentalism and leads to false hopes and delusions in the group of people affected by diabetes.
Consequently, some of the hopes that scientific knowledge has inspired in recent years for potential strategic approaches to the prevention and treatment of diabetes are of great interest. This article's goal is to make it easier to understand the advancements made as part of the disease's comprehensive care, not to compare or evaluate each option. The fact that our own illnesses frequently request that we clarify the scope of certain recently published news stories in order to achieve new successes in the management and control of diabetes mellitus forces us to be aware of them and capable of evaluating them appropriately. Without inspiring false hope or outright disbelieving expectations for anything that could actually represent a step forward in diabetes care,
The prevention of illness
Numerous research teams are working to identify immunological and molecular markers that will enable early detection of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
Regarding the first, we are aware that several anticuerpos, such as the GAD and the IA-2, are able to identify populations that are at high risk of developing this disease in the upcoming years. When combined with a certain genetic haplotype, the use of these autoimmunity markers significantly increases the selection of a population at high risk for disease. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that administering small doses of GAD or other isotopic proteins can prevent the development of diabetes mellitus in test animals. More intriguing even, there is laboratory data that shows how treatment with certain vaccines might stop the progression of the illness.
The focus of future research in this field is twofold: first, determining the probability that a population will get diabetes in the near future; and second, developing a targeted treatment that will safeguard that population. There is no human data suggesting that type 1 diabetes can be prevented over a short period of time. The advancements that are made are likely to be very limited unless we are able to identify the molecular mechanisms involved in the disease's destruction. There are some encouraging results from studies focused on the selection of autoreactive clones as well as the process of immunomodulating citocines.
The majority of research efforts in type 2 diabetes are concentrated on identifying the gene or genes that are likely to malfunction, impairing either the capacity of the pancreas cell to release insulin or the ability of the peripheral organs to utilize it. The prospect of an etiopathogenic therapy has previously been raised by the identification of the genes responsible for the MODY form of diabetes. We will probably be able to pinpoint the genes causing type 2 diabetes after the human genome has been uncovered and genomic and proteomic methods have evolved. The discovery of therapeutic dianas is a step forward in the treatment of a disease, but it does not guarantee a quick cure.
However, studies that have used exercise and a change in lifestyle as a means of promoting a delay in the onset of the illness have shown them to be quite effective. The prevention studies using metformin (DPP) and acarbosa (STOP NIDDM) are also of great interest since they have shown both a beneficial effect on disease prevention and cardiovascular risk prevention, respectively.
Cellular transplantation
Despite the fact that the strategy seems to be one of the most effective ones, it hasn't been until this year when positive results have been reported for obtaining normoglicemia by islet transplantation in a cohort of patients with type 1 diabetes. These results, which are quite optimistic, require confirmation.
There would still be two significant challenges to overcome when the cell transplant succeeded in turning the diabetes around. To get biological material for the treatment of a large population of type 1 diabetics and, on the other hand, to prevent the triggering of the inflammatory response against the cell that is the source of the disease (tabla 1).
To make this kind of treatment general, not enough donors are available. Therefore, it is imperative to identify cellular products that are well tolerated by the diabetic receptor. In this line of research, highly intriguing experimental results using the transplant of multiple-potential cells, also known as mother cells, have been reported. The possibility that stem cells may be produced from embryonic stem cells using techniques similar to those used in rats has raised significant expectations and even sparked public discussion. This topic should remain within the proper bounds of science. Because the use of pluripotent stem cells cannot immediately aid in the treatment of type 1 diabetes, research in this highly productive field should not be slowed.
Obscurers who have nothing to do with scientific reality
In addition, we need to figure out ways to protect these transplants from both autoimmune patient memory and alogenetic rejection. Future paths include encapsulation, immunomodulation, and genetic reconstruction. The cell transplantation therapy for certain patients with type 1 diabetes seems to be approaching soon (tabla 2).
Other potentially useful therapeutic strategies include encouraging neogenesis from ductal cells and encouraging persistent cell replication. Both strategies may help to maintain a cellular population that is active, immune to attack, and able to maintain the condition of normoglicemia when combined with agents that alter the programmed death or apotosis process. There are experimental drugs that have these properties and that, if used on humans, may be quite effective.
Similar to insulin
Many groups conducting research on diabetes still view the goal of curing the disease as quite distant. They believe that more advancements must be made in order to improve the lives of diabetics and to perfect the tools we now have at our disposal for managing the disease.
In relation to both types of diabetes—type 1 and type 2—and among these products, it appears that the goal of developing insulin analogues that can provide an insulinic profile that is increasingly similar to that of the body's physiology is one of the more distinct future perspectives that has fueled the growth of the pharmaceutical industry in recent years. These prospects are increased by the potential for some analogs to be administered via nasal or oral routes in the near future.
There are other substances that might eventually prove useful. Those oral agents that can mimic insulin without causing hyperglycemia belong to a large group. There are several of them, including those derived from quinolones, leucine, and inositoles. Additionally, insulin boosters such as vanadote derivatives Others that are hormone-derived, such as GLP-1. The series is large.
There are more interesting strategies that ought to be discussed. Substances such as IPF-1 analogs or tungstato derivatives that stimulate the regeneration of pancreatic islets damaged by type 1 diabetes.
A wide range of substances are offered. By having an impact on gliadin-producing products, they might prevent the development of complications. There isn't a single competitive research institute or global pharmaceutical industry that doesn't engage in the search for novel treatments for the treatment of the illness as well as for the prevention of diabetes and its complications. We are traveling on a non-returning path. Diabetes research is important because of the disease's prevalence, the severity of the condition, and the fact that we have the necessary foundation to eventually find a cure.
At this link you can find a low-cost guide on how to follow a diet to lower blood sugar or prevent diabetes, which is a disease that a large number of people developed when they were young. More information