A team of researchers at the University of California, San Diego, is developing a pill that restores insulin sensitivity in diabetic patients. Type 2 diabetes develops when the body’s response to insulin – a hormone that regulates the amount of glucose in the blood – gets weaker. Commercially available drugs so far only remove excess glucose in the blood, and have side effects, such as weight gain or diarrhea. The drugs sure can help manage the disease, but cannot reverse or restore the insulin signaling function in diabetic patients. However, the newly developed drug hopes to restore the body’s sensitivity to insulin without producing any adverse side effects.
According to the statement released by the team, the drug works by inhibiting an enzyme called low molecular weight protein tyrosine phosphatase (LMPTP), which weakens cell sensitivity to insulin. By reducing LMPTP activity, the drug reawakens insulin receptors on the surface of the cells – especially those in the liver. This in turn restores ability to regulate excess sugar and effectively reverses the condition of Type 2 diabetes.
Reference: Diabetes reversal by inhibition of the low-molecular-weight tyrosine phosphatase. Nature Chemical Biology, 2017. DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.2344
ScienceSwitch 
I like this approach of restoring function rather than compensating for organ deficiencies.
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Felbatol was going to be the “silver bullet” for seizure disorders in the 1990’s. Instead, the risk of developing a-plastic anemia was too high. It was over-hyped and the only people who could use it were people who had not other viable alternatives.
When it comes to medications, I have a wait-and-see attitude. I work with a population historically prescribed medications to alter behavior, mood or seizures. The result is tremors and tardive dyskinesia from years of taking psychotropic medications. Then there’s Vioxx. Sometimes the side effects are worse than what the medication was prescribed to do.
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A huge advance. But when I talk to doctors about advances in diabetes treatment and cancer treatment advances they don’t seem to know what I am talking about. Don’t they read the same internet I do ?
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I agree!
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