Scientists are expected to use vitamin D to treat diabetes

According to US CDC data, there are more than 27 million patients with type 2 diabetes in the United States today. As the population ages and the proportion of overweight and obese people increases, the number of patients with type 2 diabetes is still Will always increase. In a recent study published in the internationally renowned magazine Cell, researchers from the Salk Institute developed a potential method to effectively treat diabetes by protecting beta cells in the pancreas. The beta cells in the body are capable of producing, storing, and releasing insulin. When they are dysfunctional, they cannot produce insulin to control the blood sugar level of the body, which may harm the health of the body and even induce death.

In the article, the researchers used vitamin D to achieve their goal of treating diabetes. They studied cell models and mouse models and found that vitamin D can effectively treat damaged β cells in the body. At the same time, this study also proposed gene regulation. New insights, or new treatments that can be used to treat other diseases such as cancer. Using beta cells from embryonic stem cells, the researchers identified a compound called iBRD9 that enhances vitamin D receptor activation and improves beta cell survival when combined with vitamin D.

The researchers conducted a screening test to find specific compounds that could improve the survival of beta cells in culture dishes. They then tested the effects of compound iBRD9 and vitamin D in a diabetic mouse model. The glucose level in the animal model is adjusted to normal levels. Researcher Dr. Zong Wei said that at the beginning of the study we tried to clarify the key role of vitamin D in beta cells. Epidemiological survey data for diabetic patients showed that high levels of vitamin D in the blood were directly related to low-risk diabetes. However, we are not aware of the molecular mechanisms involved behind it. It is difficult for us to use vitamins alone to protect beta cells from harm. Now we have thought of how the methods can be used to conduct related research.

The molecular mechanism involved in the association between vitamin D and diabetes risk is actually related to gene transcription, ie how the gene is transcribed into a protein. When the compound iBRD9 is combined with vitamin D, the expression level of the specific gene is higher than that of the disease cell. More; the researcher Michael Downes said that activation of vitamin D receptor expression can induce the anti-inflammatory function of genes, thereby helping cells survive under stress, and using special screening systems developed in the laboratory, we Key joints can be identified to promote superactivation of the vitamin D pathway.

The findings of this study will have a profound impact on the later research of scientists, and the special mechanisms identified by the researchers may be transformed into drug targets for the development of new therapies in the clinic. The final investigator, Ruth Yu, added that we studied diabetes in this study because we discovered that a key receptor can help us develop any therapy to enhance the effects of vitamin D. Although the new compounds currently used by researchers do not appear to cause any side effects in the mouse model, researchers need to conduct more in-depth research before the therapy enters the clinic.