A ‘wonder drug’ inhaled through the nose could ‘cure’ diabetes, a study has found. The hormone fibroblast growth factor 1 (FGF1) may end the misery of insulin injections for millions of sufferers across the world, according to researchers.
A single dose of the substance – delivered to the central nervous system via the nose – could keep patients’ blood levels normal for years, they say. Mice and rats with a rodent version of the disease had normal blood levels for at least four months after being given one dose of FGF1, experiments showed.
This is equivalent to more than 12 years in the life of a human.
Scientists believe FGF1 – which is produced naturally in the body – caused sustained remission by targeting brain circuits that regulate blood glucose.
They are hopeful the same will happen in people.
Type 2 diabetes – the form caused by obesity – occurs when the body doesn’t produce enough insulin to function properly or cells don’t react to the hormone causing glucose to stay in the blood.
The findings, published in Nature Medicine, could potentially be translated into a treatment for diabetes. The researchers say tests on rodents have shown FGF1 can be delivered to the central nervous system via the nose.
Earlier studies have shown injection of FGF1 into the peripheral blood has strong anti-diabetic effects in mice.
But a potent dose and repeated injections were required – and the method did not achieve durable remission. Now, Professor Michael Schwartz and colleagues have found one dose injected into the brains of mice or rats with type 2 diabetes brought blood glucose levels back to normal for the next four months.
This effect occurred irrespective of a change in diet or body fat, indicating the improvement did not depend on weight loss.
The therapy worked in mice whose obesity was either genetically engineered or caused by diet – and in a genetic model of type 2 diabetes in rats.
The researchers believe the brain can strongly influence blood glucose signalling throughout the body. But they pointed out injection of FGF1 could lead to structural changes in the brain – and this issue needs further research before any trials are considered on humans.
Professor Schwartz, of Washington University in Seattle, said, “We report a single intra-cerebro-ventricular injection of FGF1 at a dose one-tenth of that needed for antidiabetic efficacy following peripheral injection induces sustained diabetes remission in both mouse and rat models of type 2 diabetes. This anti-diabetic effect is not secondary to weight loss, does not increase the risk of hypoglycaemia and involves a novel and incompletely understood mechanism for increasing glucose clearance from the bloodstream. We conclude the brain has an inherent potential to induce diabetes remission and that brain FGF receptors are potential pharmacological targets for achieving this goal. Growing evidence points to the brain as a potential target for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.”
There are currently 3.9 million people living with diabetes in the UK – with 90 percent of those having type 2.
Patients often try to keep their blood sugar levels under control with regular finger pricks and repeated insulin shots – a process that is painful and imprecise.
Professor Schwartz said, “The translational relevance of this discovery is heightened by the feasibility of therapeutic FGF1 delivery to the central nervous system via the intra-nasal route which has been established in rodents.”