Scientists have discovered a new mechanism for how type 2 diabetes takes hold, and demonstrated in mice that blocking a particular enzyme could open a new avenue of treatment for the disease.
Type 2 diabetes begins as a patient’s body stops responding to insulin, and eventually loses the ability to produce enough of the hormone. Without it, blood glucose levels remain high and can cause a range of serious health problems. But scientists still don’t fully understand exactly why the insulin system stops working in the first place.
In the new study, scientists at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals have identified an enzyme that plays an important role. Known as SCAN, the enzyme is a carrier that attaches nitric oxide to proteins, including one that acts as a receptor for insulin action.
Nitric oxide is a key chemical messenger in the body, which aids circulation and regulates hormones, including insulin. But the team detected heightened SCAN activity in both mice and humans with diabetes, and inversely, engineered mice that lacked the SCAN enzyme seemed to be protected from the effects of diabetes.
“We show that blocking this enzyme protects from diabetes, but the implications extend to many diseases likely caused by novel enzymes that add nitric oxide,” said Jonathan Stamler, lead researcher on the study. “Blocking this enzyme may offer a new treatment.”
High levels of nitric oxide have been linked to several health conditions, such as coronary artery disease, but being a reactive molecule makes it hard to target directly. Instead, the new study shows that going after a related enzyme could open up a whole new way to treat diabetes and other illnesses. That said, it’s still very early in the research and much more work needs to be done to investigate how to target SCAN.
The research was published in the journal Cell.
Source: Case Western Reserve University
