Diabetes Mellitus is a disease in which insulin is not produced or used by the body. Patients with type 1 diabetes must take insulin injections to control their blood sugar. The insulin injections are supposed to be taken many times a day and sometimes more than one type of insulin is used.
A new research however has revealed that diabetics will no longer have to undergo painful insulin injections, instead anti-diabetes medicine will take their place and do the needful.
Researchers at University of Adelaide have shown how anti diabetes drugs being developed are interacting at the molecular level with their target.
"Type two diabetes is characterized by resistance to insulin with subsequent high blood sugar which leads to serious disease. It is usually associated with poor lifestyle factors such as diet and lack of exercise," said John Bruning, from University of Adelaide.
Unlike commonly prescribed drugs like Metformin, the new anti-diabetes drug does not work on the liver to reduce glucose products. Instead, they act upon a protein receptor found in fat tissue throughout the body, known as PPAR gamma. They either fully or partially activate it so that blood sugar is lowered by changing the metabolism of fat and sugar and increasing sensitivity to insulin.
"People with severe diabetes need to take insulin but having to inject this can be problematic, and it's difficult to get insulin levels just right," said Bruning.