Pretoria - Diabetes continues to affect millions of people globally, with recent projections by the International Diabetes Federation suggesting the current number of 366 million could rise to 552 million by 2030.
This is despite substantial efforts to understand the biological and physical manifestations of diabetes, and to implement preventative or therapeutic measures.
One way of reducing the alarming levels of diabetes, especially in developing countries like South Africa, is to prevent the early onset of insulin resistance and to gain new information about its underlying cause, says Dr Danzil Joseph of the Department of Physiological Sciences at Stellenbosch University.
In a recent doctoral study, Joseph produced new data on the molecular events behind insulin resistance that may open alternative possibilities for treating it before diabetes develops.
“Such information could help prevent the early onset of insulin resistance, which drives the increase in blood glucose to dangerously high levels in diabetic patients,” says Joseph.
He adds that in healthy people insulin secreted from the pancreas after eating or drinking helps the cells of various organs to take up glucose and use it as energy, which also ensures glucose is cleared from the bloodstream.
Aiming to evaluate the effects of acute high blood sugar on insulin resistance in heart cells, Joseph exposed cultured heart cells, grown under controlled conditions in a laboratory, to high blood sugar levels to mimic the heart cells of a pre-diabetic person.
“Chronic high blood sugar, a hallmark of diabetes, is linked to insulin resistance in heart cells and may be prevalent in the early stages of diabetes development or simply as a result of high sugar intake coupled with physical inactivity.”
According to Joseph, insulin resistance may play an important role in the progression of heart disease, which is a major cause of death and disability among people with diabetes.
“Results from my study showed that acute high blood sugar elicits harmful reactive molecules which, together with a number of lesser-known pathways involved in glucose metabolism, play a role in reducing glucose uptake in heart cells.
“Blocking these pathways with pharmaceuticals and antioxidants restored glucose uptake.”
Joseph says findings from his research could help with the development of effective medicine, especially since current treatment and management of diabetes are difficult and expensive, resulting in a significant economic and social burden on health-care systems.
Although diabetes medicines help curb weight gain and reduce blood glucose levels, Joseph says they trigger moderate to severe side-effects and fail to limit heart and kidney failure, and damage to nerves outside the brain and spinal cord.
He adds that lifestyle interventions such as a healthy diet and regular exercise are promising as a preventative strategy, but generally difficult to adhere to.
Joseph says since it remains difficult to manage full-blown diabetes, effective treatment could be achieved by targeting the pre-diabetic phase when insulin resistance is already developing gradually.
Pretoria News