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Discovery may pave the way for a new class of diabetes drugs

A multidisciplinary team led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego has determined the structure of a protein found in cells that shows potential as a target for the development of new drugs to treat diabetes.

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Keywords: discovery, pave, way, class, diabetes, drugs, diabete, drug

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Similar news on "Discovery may pave the way for a new class of diabetes drugs":

1. UCSD researchers discover inflammation, not obesity, cause of insulin resistance
   11-06-2007 · EurekAlert!
   Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that inflammation provoked by immune cells called macrophages leads to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Their discovery may pave the way to novel drug development to fight the epidemic of type 2 diabetes associated with obesity, the most prevalent metabolic disease worldwide.
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2. UCR involved in discovery of diabetes fighting molecule
   01-23-2007 · EurekAlert!
   University of California, Riverside Assistant Professor of Bioengineering, Jiayu Liao played a pivotal role in the discovery of a small molecule that has been shown to control diabetes in mice and may pave the way to the development of easier treatment for adult-onset diabetes. This discovery was a collaboration between Liao at UC Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering and a team in the National Center for Drug Screening, Shanghai, which is part of the Chinese Academy of Science.
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3. Discovery of an HIV inhibitor in human blood points to new drug class
   04-19-2007 · EurekAlert!
   A new study has pinpointed a natural ingredient of human blood that effectively blocks HIV-1, the virus predominantly responsible for human AIDS, from infecting immune cells and multiplying. The virus blocker might play a role in the progression of HIV to full-blown AIDS and -- because it works in a different way than existing antiretroviral inhibitors -- could lead to the development of another class of drugs in the fight against the pandemic disease.
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4. Tequila raw ingredient being developed into drug-carrier that targets colon diseases
   03-27-2007 · EurekAlert!
   Compounds derived from the blue agave, a fruit used to make tequila, show promise as a natural, more effective way to deliver drugs to the colon than conventional drug-carriers, according to chemists at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico. The discovery could lead to improved treatments for a variety of colon diseases, including ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel and cancer, they say. The research will be presented in March at the American Chemical Society national meeting.
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5. Advance in understanding of blood pressure gene could lead to new treatments
   02-04-2007 · EurekAlert!
   Research by scientists at UCL (University College London) has clearly demonstrated for the first time the structure and function of a gene crucial to the regulation of blood pressure. The discovery could be important in the search for new treatments for illnesses such as heart disease, the UK's biggest killer. In a paper published online today in Nature Medicine, the team, led by Professor Patrick Vallance and Dr James Leiper, UCL Department of Medicine, reveal the role of the human gene dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH), showing that loss of DDAH activity disrupts nitric oxide (NO) production. NO is critical in the regulation of blood pressure, nervous system functions and the immune system. The role of DDAH is to break down modified amino acids (Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and monomethyl arginine (L-NMMA)) that are produced by the body and have been shown to inhibit NO synthase. These molecules accumulate in various disease states including diabetes, renal failure and pulmonary and systemic hypertension, and their concentration in plasma (the fluid component of blood) is strongly predicative of cardiovascular disease and death. In a healthy human body, the majority of ADMA is eliminated through active metabolism by DDAH. Scientists have hypothesised that if DDAH function is impaired, NO production is reduced, and that this could be an important feature of increased cardiovascular risk. To examine this pathway in more detail, the researchers deleted the DDAH gene in mice. These mice went on to develop hypertension, or high blood pressure. They also designed specific inhibitors (small molecules) which bind to the active site of human DDAH. These small molecule inhibitors also induced hypertension in mice, confirming the importance of DDAH in the regulation of blood pressure. Dr Leiper, UCL Medicine, said: “These genetic and chemical approaches to disrupt DDAH showed remarkably consistent results, and provide compelling evidence that loss of DDAH function increases the concentration of ADMA and thereby disrupts vascular NO signalling. “There has been considerable scientific interest in this pathway and the role of ADMA as a novel risk factor, but so far there's been little evidence to support the idea that it's a cause of disease, rather than just a marker. Genes and their pathways are crucial to our understanding of cardiovascular disease and a better understanding of DDAH-1 could lead to important new treatments. “It could help us to establish if genetic variation predisposes certain people to these diseases, or whether environmental factors exert some of their effects through modulation of DDAH activity. “Our research also shows that this pathway could be harnessed therapeutically to limit production of NO in certain situations where too much nitric oxide is a bad thing; for example, hypotension and septic shock. These are some of the biggest problems in intensive care medicine and there is a huge unmet need for drug treatments.” The study, which was carried out at UCL's Rayne Institute, was funded by grants from the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation, said: "The unexpected finding in the 1980s that a simple gas, nitric oxide (NO), is made by cells in the blood vessel wall and is a powerful control of blood vessel relaxation led to the award of the Nobel Prize in 1998 to its discoverers. "More recently, there has been increasing evidence that impairment of NO production is likely to be an important factor in the development of heart and circulatory disease, but the mechanisms responsible are not fully understood. "This study suggests for the first time that the loss of the activity of the enzyme DDAH-1 leads to reduced NO production and may cause heart and circulatory disease. These findings are likely to be important in the search for new ways to optimise the health of our blood vessels." ### Notes for Editors 1. For more information, please contact Ruth Metcalfe in the UCL Media Relations Office on tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9739, mobile: +44 (0)7990 675 947, out of hours: +44 (0)7917 271 364, e-mail: r.metcalfe@ucl.ac.uk2. 'Disruption of methylarginine metabolism impairs vascular homeostasis' is published in the February issue of the journal Nature Medicine. Advance online publication is embargoed to 18.00 GMT (13.00 US Eastern) Sunday 4 February 2007. Journalists can obtain copies of the paper by contacting the UCL Media Relations Office.3. The study was funded by the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. About UCL Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. In the government's most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 59 UCL departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5, indicating research quality of international excellence. UCL is the fourth-ranked UK university in the 2006 league table of the top 500 world universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. UCL alumni include Mahatma Gandhi (Laws 1889, Indian political and spiritual leader); Jonathan Dimbleby (Philosophy 1969, writer and television presenter); Junichiro Koizumi (Economics 1969, Prime Minister of Japan); Lord Woolf (Laws 1954, Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales); Alexander Graham Bell (Phonetics 1860s, inventor of the telephone), and members of the band Coldplay.
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6. Moving beyond tamoxifen: Drug discovery and the future of selective hormone receptor modulators
   02-15-2008 · EurekAlert!
   How did a failed contraceptive become the first targeted therapy for the treatment of breast cancer? The transformation of tamoxifen, from cast-off to lifesaver, laid the foundation for a new class of therapeutics -- selective estrogen receptor modulators. V. Craig Jordan, a researcher at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Jordan reports on efforts to use the lessons from tamoxifen to develop new hormone receptor-related drugs for both women and men.
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7. University of Alberta researchers report breakthrough in lowering bad cholesterol, fatty acid levels
   01-09-2008 · EurekAlert!
   Medical researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada have found a way to reduce the amount of bad cholesterol and fatty acids that end up in the blood from food the body metabolizes, a key discovery that could lead to new drugs to treat and reverse the effects of diabetes and heart disease related to obesity. Existing drugs called statins are used to lower cholesterol, but do not treat obesity or diabetes.
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8. A new computational technique predicts side-effects of a major cancer drug
   11-27-2007 · EurekAlert!
   Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed a novel computer technique to search for the side effects of major pharmaceuticals. The study, reported Nov. 30 in PLoS Computational Biology, relates to a class of drugs known as Select Estrogen Receptor Modulators, which includes tamoxifen, the most prescribed drug in the treatment of breast cancer.
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9. Prescribing information for kidney disease far too vague
   12-06-2006 · EurekAlert!
   Prescribing information for healthcare professionals treating patients with kidney disease is too vague, concludes the latest issue of Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB). Many of the 4-5 percent of the UK population with serious chronic kidney disease are elderly people, who are often taking several different drugs. Other risk factors for the disease include diabetes and high blood pressure.
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10. New biomarker predicts effectiveness of breast cancer drugs
    12-07-2006 · EurekAlert!
    University of Cincinnati researchers have identified a new way to predict when anti-estrogen drug therapies are inappropriate for patients with hormone-dependent breast cancer.Scientists say these findings could help physicians more accurately predict which tumors will respond to anti-estrogen therapy and improve long-term survival for breast cancer patients.
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