Cyndrome

Posts Tagged ‘Diabetes Medicine’

Two University of Queensland (UQ) researchers are leading biopharmaceutical associated with more global leader in the development of new peptide-based drugs to treat serious diseases. Peptides are small proteins that can be targeted to specific sites in the body, reducing the risk of side effects. But when taken by mouth, digestive enzymes break down conventional peptides, which means it must be injected to be effective.

The project aims to develop new drugs that build bridges between existing orally bioavailable small molecules and biotherapeutics injection in providing a new generation of orally active treatments for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Professors David Fairlie and David Craik from the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, UQ (IMB) has received $ 2.5 million from the Australian Research Council (ARC) to work with Pfizer to develop a new generation of drugs that will help overcome the limitations of current treatments.

“We are engineering new types of molecules based on peptides and proteins that are stable enough to be taken orally, yet sufficiently large to be target-specific and help lessen the side effects seen with small molecules,” Professor Craik said.  “This project will provide a fundamental understanding for the development of new classes of medicines with the potential to treat a range of diseases,” Professor Fairlie said.

Pfizer is committed to advancing discovery and harnessing innovative science through partnerships. In addition to partnering closely with the IMB to discover and co-develop next generation medicines, Pfizer will also contribute $2.4 million in funding to the collaboration over the next three years.  Dr Dan Grant, Pfizer’s Head of External Research & Development Innovation (Australia, New Zealand and Singapore) said peptide research is one of the most promising fields in the development of the new medicines. The collaboration with IMB supports Pfizer’s Cardiovascular Metabolic Diseases Research Unit (CVMED).

“The development of peptide-based medicines promises to treat diseases that are not currently treatable or well managed with available medicines, such as diabetes. Our CVMED unit is focused on supporting and treating patients with diabetes and the discovery of these innovative therapies may dramatically improve the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of Australian diabetes sufferers,” Dr Grant said.

The partnership combines important scientific souls to a world-class expertise in the latest in science, in hopes of creating a forum to understand the serious diseases that bring new medicines to patients faster and help meet the unmet medical need. Brad Edwards, Senior Vice President, Pfizer Australia Care Unit for Special Affairs, said: “Pfizer is pleased to be partnering with the University of Queensland Institute of Molecular Biosciences, our researchers to identify the strengths that exist in IMB, in particular, that the professors, and Fairlie Craik is the world’s leading chemical peptides and peptides.-drug design. “

Gastric bypass surgery has been known to improve glycemic control, often send people with type 2 diabetes into remission, but experts have long wondered exactly how it goes.

Now, a new study provides some clues.

Movement of amino acids associated with insulin resistance decreased significantly in those who have bypass surgery, researchers have discovered. They compared 10 obese people with diabetes who underwent surgery with 11 who have lost weight by dieting.

“Something happens after gastric bypass, there are so many food-induced weight loss,” said Dr. Blandine Lafer, associate professor of medicine at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital Center and Columbia University, to New York City.

The study is published in the April 27 issue of Science Translational Medicine.

The surgery, which reduces the stomach to the size of a small pouch, also modifies the junction between the stomach and small intestine. It leads to a dramatic reduction in the level of circulating amino acids that have been linked with diabetes.

“The fact that gastric bypass results in the remission of diabetes in the majority of patients is not new,” said Laferrere. According to background information in the study, 50% to 80% of diabetes cases go into remission after the surgery.

What doctors have been trying to figure out, she said, is why the bypass surgery is so good at making the diabetes disappear. “The diabetes improves almost immediately, before a significant amount of weight loss occurs,” she said. “That points out it is something other than the weight loss.”

In the new study, the researchers evaluated biochemical compounds involved in metabolic reactions in the participants. Each group had lost about 20 pounds. The investigators found that the bypass patients had much lower levels of amino acids known as branched-chain amino acids, and the amino acids phenylalanine and tyrosine.

“Those changes in the amino acids could be implicated in the mechanism of diabetes remission after gastric bypass,” Laferrere said.

Experts know the amino acids are linked with insulin resistance partly due to animal studies, she said. “If you supplement the diet of rats with branched-chain amino acids, you can induce more insulin resistance,” she explained.

However, Laferrere said, the finding does not mean all obese people with diabetes should pick surgery over dieting. The surgery is highly invasive, she noted, and not everyone is a candidate.

While the findings are intriguing, she said, it’s too early to apply them to diabetes treatment. Eventually, she added, after experts understand more about how the surgery affects the amino acids, it may be possible to apply the findings to develop better diabetes treatments or a less invasive surgery.

The new study adds weight to other research finding a link between the decline in branched-chain amino acids and the decline in insulin resistance, said Dr. Thomas J. Wang, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a coauthor of the perspective accompanying the study.

“It’s known that gastric bypass rapidly reverses insulin resistance, which is one of the principal biochemical abnormalities that precedes diabetes,” Wang said.

“This study really does help to confirm that hypothesis that branched-chain amino acids do go down more in people who have weight loss surgery,” he said. While it lends support to the idea that there is a link between the reduction in the amino acids and the decline in insulin resistance, it does not yet prove cause and effect, Wang added.

“It shows people who get weight loss surgery have a bigger drop in their branched-chain amino acids. What is not yet proven is whether that reduction in branched-chain amino acids is the reason their insulin resistance declines,” he pointed out.

Wang and his co-author, Dr. Robert Gerszten are co-inventors of patent applications relating to metabolite predictors of diabetes.

Gerszten, and Wang also pointed out that the number of obese people have type 2 diabetes were 171 million worldwide in 2000. By 2030, the number should be doubled. Therefore, they wrote a detailed understanding of the role of amino acids in the diabetes would be valuable.

While the best remedy to prevent type 2 diabetes – eating right and exercising – may be relatively simple, is something that many people have a bad time to do so. For this reason, a team of researchers at New York-Presbyterian Hospital is planning to test the effectiveness of bariatric surgery to treat the symptoms of diabetes in overweight but not obese.

Previous studies have shown that bariatric surgery is an effective way to treat diabetes, a person is seriously overweight. These patients have a BMI of 35 or more. Much less is known about the effects of this intervention, people with type 2 diabetes, but is more moderate BMI.
The group plans on testing the effectiveness of bariatric surgery in diabetes patients who have a BMI between 26 and 35. This would put them in the overweight or mildly obese categories. The researchers said that they hope the surgery will provide similar results in these patients as it does for the severely obese. These benefits include improved blood sugar control, reduced medication need and lowered risk of diabetes-related death.

“It ‘s prima facie evidence that these results can be obtained in overweight or mildly obese patients, said Dr. Francesco Rubino, who will conduct the investigation.” We need rigorous, comparative clinical trials such as this, to better understand when to give priority to the surgery and when to recommend a traditional therapy. ”

In addition to improving the symptoms of diabetes surgery, Rubino said he hoped that the investigation reveals more than the BMI criteria for deciding which patients need bariatric surgery. Demonstrate that the procedure may be useful to those with lower BMI; the search fails to convince insurance companies to cover more than one person.

AstraZeneca desire to implement a new diabetes drugs and new uses for existing blockbuster drugs, Seroquel, Crestor and Nexium as the fight against drugs at the elbow pipe, and lackluster sales.

The Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical manufacturer has suffered setbacks in recent months. E ‘down his Motavizumab a drug used to prevent a serious lung disease that leads to $ 445m (£ 280m) write-downs and the approval of its heart drug Brilinta was further delayed in the United States. Turnover this year is affected by competition from generics after the patent for the breast cancer treatment Arimidex.

AstraZeneca reported a 2% rise in 2010 pre-tax profits to $10.98bn (£6.9bn) today, with sales edging up 1% to $33.3bn. Sales of cholesterol drug Crestor and Seroquel, used to treat bipolar disorder, both topped $5bn for the first time. Sales in emerging markets also exceeded $5bn for the first time, offsetting a 7% drop in the US due to generic competition.
One of AstraZeneca’s promising new medicines is the diabetes drug dapagliflozin, which it is developing with Bristol Myers-Squibb. Dapagliflozin has been submitted for regulatory approval in both the US and Europe, and, barring any problems, could be on the market next year.

Zinforo, an antibiotic for complicated skin infections and hospital-acquired pneumonia, is also awaiting regulatory approval. Its sales potential is smaller as antibiotics are usually used as a last resort, but it taps into a growing need to tackle antibiotic resistance to bacteria.

David Brennan, chief executive, launched a major overhaul of AstraZeneca’s research and development arm last year. The company is closing sites in Southborough and in Lund, Sweden.

For the first time since 2004, the drugs pipeline has been reduced. “Pipelines were getting bigger and bigger … the fact is we didn’t get much out at the other end,” said Martin Mackay, the new head of R&D, who was brought in last July. He said dramatic change had been needed and that he and his team had reviewed every single program me. Some 34 projects were discontinued.

Verdult Peter Morgan Stanley said: “Although AstraZeneca is facing challenging revenue outlook, we believe earnings and cash flow will exceed the expectations of operational excellence.”

Others were more skeptical. “The key issue is the fact that AstraZeneca has the least number of sustainable businesses in our universe of coverage, and only the image, where we expect a significant drop in sales in 2020 than today,” said Dominic Valder Evolution Securities.

The company has tried to please investors, double its share buyback program to $ 4 billion to U.S. $ 2.1 billion last year.

The UAE Ministry of Health has cancelled the registration and forbidden distribution of the drug Amzylite and all products that carry this component. The decision was made after testing proved that the trading composition of the drug is different from that registered at the ministry which is contrary to the rules of the UAE.

Dr Amin Al Amiri, Executive Director for Medical Practices and Licensing, said the drug was registered at the Ministry of Health in 2006 for a private company. However, the company’s licence was cancelled in 2006 for being inactive for a period of six months.

He said: “We found that the product was promoted with false claims of curing diabetes while it was registered with the Ministry of Health as enzymes to help digestion.

“The promotion was carried out through the internet, which showed a person claiming to be the inventor of the product. Besides, text messages were sent with the false information that the drug is a treatment of diabetes.”

Dr Al Amiri said registration of the drug and any product with the name of Amzylite has been cancelled and these will be withdrawn from the market in the UAE.

He said: “The pharmacies or distributors are obliged to report to the Department of Registration and Drug Control while taking the final decision about how to dispose of and to stop trading or importance any of these products.”

There is a flurry of activity surrounding the controversial Avandia diabetes pill. The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency says the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) drug “no longer has a place on the UK market.” The chair of the European Medicines Agency scientific advisory group on diabetes argues the pill should be withdrawn. And the same sentiment is expressed by the BMJ, a leading medical journal, in an editorial that accompanies an investigation into regulatory footdragging.

Moreover, the EMA on Wednesday will hold an extraordinary meeting to review Avandia in advance of a regularly scheduled meeting later this month that will finalize its decision. “Doctors were advised not to use the tablet in anyone who was at risk of heart failure,” says Edwin Gale, who chairs the EMA scientific advisory group on diabetes. “How long do you wait? How important is it to be absolutely certain and at what point do you start saying – this game isn’t worth it, people’s lives may be at risk, something should be done about it?”

The move comes as the FDA undertakes its own deliberation after an advisory committee two months ago recommended the diabetes pill remain available, but with restrictions, underscoring a delicate policy question for an agency that has been beset with infighting for three years over questions surrounding Avandia.

Meanwhile, BMJ reports that the UK’s Commission on Human Medicines – an independent panel advising the goverment – had actually recommended in July that Avandia should be withdrawn. But the MHRA, instead, sent a July 26 letter to doctors that merely advised them to “consider alternative treatments where appropriate.” Now, however, an MHRA spokesman says the agency has communicated its flip-flop “robustly” to the EMA and would highlight its concerns at this week’s special meeting.

In her editorial, BMJ editor Fiona Godlee writes that Avandia “should not have been licensed and should now be withdrawn,” and she called for systemic changes.

Europe’s regulators should be much more transparent. They should require a higher quality of evidence, including proof that new drugs are better than existing drugs before being licensed. And if they do ask the manufacturer to undertake post-marketing trials, they must do a better job of overseeing the way these trials are designed and done…

We all need the pharmaceutical sector to flourish and innovate. We should also seek to modify the increasingly destructive relationship between industry and the public. This would require concessions on both sides: far greater transparency from industry and the regulators, including access to raw data and funding for independent trials; and greater understanding from the public that there is no such thing as a completely safe drug.

Scientists are examining whether a diet rich in certain types of fibre can suppress hunger and improve the body’s ability to control blood sugar levels.

Foods such as garlic, chicory, asparagus and artichokes are known as fermentable carbohydrates, which are thought to activate the release of gut hormones that reduce appetite.

They also enhance sensitivity to insulin – the hormone produced by the pancreas that allows glucose to enter the body’s cells – thereby leading to better glucose control, it is believed.

The charity Diabetes UK is now funding research into the health benefits of such foods. If proved to be effective, the findings could revolutionise treatments for obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Nicola Guess, a dietitian at Imperial College, London, who is leading the three-year study, said: “By investigating how appetite and blood glucose levels are regulated in people at high risk of Type 2 diabetes, it is hoped that we can find a way to prevent its onset.

“If successful, this study will be able to determine whether fermentable carbohydrates could provide the public with an effective and affordable health intervention to reduce an individual’s risk of developing diabetes.”

There are 2.35 million people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in Britain, and a further half a million sufferers who are unaware that they have the condition. If left untreated, it can lead to complications such as kidney failure, heart disease, stroke and amputation.

Research by the University of Leicester, published last week, suggests that eating green leafy vegetables could help cut the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Broccoli, kale, spinach, sprouts and cabbage can reduce the risk by 14 per cent when eaten daily, according to the study published in the British Medical Journal.

The vegetables are rich in antioxidants and magnesium, which has been linked to lower levels of diabetes.

Your doctor may prescribe one or more medicines to help control your blood sugar, along with your plan to eat healthy and stay active.

Several kinds of medicines may help control blood sugar. Most people take pills while others take insulin. Some newer medicines for type 2 diabetes are injected. Your doctor will tell you which kind of medicine you need and why.

Over time, as your body changes, your doctor may make some changes in your treatment to help control your blood sugar. He or she may:

• Change your dose
• Add a new medicine or insulin
• Switch pills

Types of pills

Several types of pills are prescribed to treat type 2 diabetes:

• Alpha-glucosidase inhibitors prevent the breakdown of starches, such as bread, potatoes, and pasta in the intestine. They also slow the breakdown of some sugars. Their action slows the rise in blood glucose levels after a meal.
• Biguanides reduce the amount of sugar produced by the liver and make muscle tissue more sensitive to insulin so that sugar can be absorbed.
• DPP-4 inhibitors help improve A1C without causing low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). They work by preventing the breakdown of a naturally occurring compound in the body.
• Sulfonylureas and meglitinides stimulate the beta cells in the pancreas to release more insulin.
• Thiazolidinediones help insulin work better in the muscle and fat and also reduce the liver’s sugar production. They target insulin resistance.

Diabetes pills don’t work for everyone. Although you may find that your blood glucose levels go down when you start taking pills, your blood sugar levels may not reach the normal range.

What are the chances that diabetes pills will work for you? Your chances are good if you developed diabetes recently or have needed little or no insulin to keep your blood glucose levels near normal.