Anath Shalev, Md, Type 2 Diabetes

obesity is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes And we have a major problem worldwide but particularly here in Alabama Since Alabama falls into the obesity and diabetes belt type 2 is caused actually by two things one is insulin resistance which is often caused by obesity and this function and loss of pancreatic beta-cell mass and so because of that it's actually not surprising that even though a lot of patients with diabetes will be obese not everyone with obesity will develop diabetes because it does require the additional problem with the beta cells that produce insulin type 2 diabetes is based on two major problems the insulin resistance partially caused by the obesity as well as dysfunction and loss of beta cells and even though we know those factors we don't know what actually contributions to these processes and so one area that we are focusing on is on beta cell biology to figure out what are the causes that make those beta cells fail and unable to compensate for the insulin resistance what we know now is that as long as there's enough beta-cell function there is no diabetes in terms of type 2 diabetes Because beta cells will just be able to compensate for any type of insulin resistance that occurs in the body so we do it is very critical to find factors that can prevent cell death, a beta cell death and make beta-cell function better even in the face of obesity I think we're making some major breakthroughs that are very promising and for the first time able to find targets that actually change our view on how to promote beta cell survival and function and so I think with that the we are much more confident that we will be able to achieve those goals down the road we did discover protein that is causing beta cell death and it's very strongly upregulated in obesity and diabetes so we think it does play a major role in obesity induced type 2 diabetes and the interesting thing now is that we are able to we were able to demonstrate that when we knock out this protein either genetically or pharmacologically we can rescue mice from diabetes and we can do so even in the face a very severe obesity so that gives us kind of hope that we'll be able to do the same thing in humans and now we found most recently that this protein not only regulates beta cell survival but also beta-cell function so it inhibits insulin production so when we inhibit the protein we get increased insulin production so both if effects a beta-cell life-and-death as well as insulin production and its major function so no another major focus here at UAB and we're again lucky to have the collaborators to do so is to find specific inhibitors for this protein small molecules that ideally could be given orally and could inhibit expression of this protein and by that promote beta cell survival and function and so by doing so we actually are working on a very novel approach for diabetes that is not just enhancing insulin secretion as some other current drugs or inhibiting insulin resistance but rather affecting beta cells per se