October 9, 2007

Diabetes enzyme identified

Research at the Garvan Institute in Sydney, Australia has pin pointed an enzyme which is key in the blocking of insulin, the hormone that is found within the pancreas that converts the sugar in blood to energy.

Treatment for diabetes is done by trying to control the insulin levels by adding this to the body, but this can be hard going for the patient. The ultimate goal would be a treatment that will block the enzyme which in turn would allow the body to produce its own insulin as normal.

With this discovery there could be such a treatment on its way, but this is likely to take more than ten before a viable treatment is available.

Source [ABC]