India is fighting numerous deadly diseases. Diabetes is perhaps the biggest villain on the list. According to the 2017 diabetes atlas of International Diabetics Federation, India has the second highest (72.9 million) number of diabetics in the world. IDF projects that soon India will top the list, and by 2045, the country will have 134.3 million people with diabetes.
Diabetes occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin hormone or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces to control the blood sugar concentration. According to IDF, around four million people (aged 20 to 79) died from diabetes in 2017. Researchers have been working hard to find cures and better management techniques for diabetes. Recently, an important breakthrough in diabetes research came from Tufts University, Massachusetts.
They engineered insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells that are activated by light. The scientists transplanted these cells into diabetic mice and confirmed that these cells can produce more than two to three times the typical level of insulin when exposed to light. These light-switchable cells can compensate for the lower insulin production or reduced insulin response in diabetic cells. The fact that the researchers were successful in controlling the glucose levels without pharmacological intervention could revolutionise the way diabetes is treated.
Excessive urination, thirst, constant hunger, weight loss, vision problems and fatigue are common symptoms of diabetes. There are three main types of diabetes—type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes. Type 1 diabetes develops due to the body's inability to produce enough insulin. Type 2 diabetes arises due to body's inability to use produced insulin effectively. Genetics, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity are main factors for type 2 diabetes.
Gestational diabetes is a condition in which a pregnant woman without diabetes develops hyperglycaemia. Women with gestational diabetes and their children are at increased risk of type 2 diabetes in the future. Studies shows that adults with diabetes have increased risk of heart attack, stroke and kidney failure.
Current treatments of diabetes include the administration of drugs that enhance insulin production by pancreatic cells or direct injection of insulin into blood to compensate for the reduced natural supply. Regulation of blood sugar is a manual process in both these methods. What Tufts researchers accomplished is a new method which amplifies insulin production without any drugs, while maintaining a real-time link between the release of insulin and glucose concentration in blood. They engineered pancreatic beta cells with a gene that encodes a photo-active adenylate cyclase (PAC) enzyme.
When exposed to light, PAC produces a molecule called cyclic adenosine monophosphate which can increase glucose-stimulated production of insulin production in the beta cell. In this method, insulin production increases only when the blood glucose level is high. At low glucose levels, insulin production also remains low. This overcomes a common drawback in the existing diabetes treatment which can overcompensate on insulin exposure and thereby leave a patient in a hypoglycaemic situation.