Diabetes

New research has found a maternal fecal transplant may mitigate the damage antibiotics cause to the development of a newborn baby’s microbiome. The animal study found a fecal transplant greatly reduced future risk of developing the disease.

Scientists at Oxford have uncovered a mechanism behind why people with diabetes have an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. High blood sugar levels seem to “reprogram” stem cells so that the immune cells they produce become more inflammatory.

Accumulation of fat around the heart has long been linked to cardiovascular and metabolic disease but until now there hasn’t been a simple way to measure this. A new AI tool has been developed that can quantify these fat deposits from regular MRI images.

Researchers believe they have found evidence indicating excess production of a neurotransmitter in the liver could be a causal factor in the onset of insulin resistance. The discovery points to preventative treatments for type 2 diabetes.

Researchers have uncovered interesting new details around the function of fat cells, finding that increasing levels of a certain protein could offer protection against diabetes in at-risk individuals, by altering the behavior of white fat cells.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new weight management drug called Wegovy (semaglutide). First approved as a type 2 diabetes treatment in 2017, the drug has been described as a “game-changer” for obese or overweight adults.

Researchers have found a way to maintain insulin levels in diabetic mice by growing and implanting new beta cells that produce the hormone. These cells are housed inside a tiny device that protects them from the immune system, like a shark cage.

Results from a trial testing a type 1 diabetes vaccine have found the treatment effective in patients with a specific genetic variant. If validated in larger trials the treatment could be helpful in around 50 percent of patients with type 1 diabetes.

Introducing the concept of “microbiome architectures”, a new study has detected robust associations between several human diseases, including diabetes and liver cirrhosis, and patterns of bacterial genes.

Researchers have long detected higher rates of cognitive decline in people with type 2 diabetes and new findings indicate cardiometabolic factors associated with diabetes, such as increased blood pressure, could be contributing to the development of dementia.

For millions of patients with diabetes, daily insulin injections are a necessary nuisance. A once-a-week shot might be more palatable, and new results from phase 2 clinical trials suggest just such a drug is safe and effective.

A new review article is presenting a promising case for phenformin, an old diabetes drug related to metformin, being repurposed as an adjunct to new immunotherapy cancer treatments. A phase 1 clinical trial is underway to test the novel combination.