ORAL MEDICATION FOR DIABETES
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Context
- Researchers have developed an oral medication to treat diabetes which, they have reported in a new study, controls insulin levels while simultaneously reversing the inflammatory effects of the disease. The study has been published in Nature Biomedical Engineering.
About
- It cited two critical advantages of the drug over the standard treatment for diabetes.
- Because it can be taken orally, it’s much simpler for the patient to stay compliant with his or her treatment.
- It also addresses three major issues with diabetes at the same time: it helps control immediate blood glucose levels, restores pancreatic function, and re-establishes normal immunity in the pancreatic environment.
- It’s all done within a nanocarrier composed of materials that our own bodies make — bile acids.
- This means that the carrier itself has therapeutic effects that work with the loaded agent to reinstate normal metabolism in the short-term, and restore immune competence in the longer term.
Diabetes
- Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces.
- Insulin is a hormone that regulates blood sugar.
- Hyperglycaemia, or raised blood sugar, is a common effect of uncontrolled diabetes and over time leads to serious damage to many of the body's systems, especially the nerves and blood vessels.
- Prevention: Simple lifestyle measures have been shown to be effective in preventing or delaying the onset of type 2 diabetes.