New targets to prevent diabetic eye disease identified.Byline: ANI London, Nov 2 (ANI): Scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center Joslin Diabetes Center is the world’s largest and most respected diabetes research center, diabetes clinic, and provider of diabetes education. It is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area in Boston, Massachusetts. have found a new, independent pathway that can offer targets for preventing and treating diabetic eye disease. In diabetes patients, high blood glucose levels can end up killing certain cells in the eyes and kidneys, which is why diabetes is the leading cause of adult blindness and of kidney failure kidney failure or renal failure Partial or complete loss of kidney function. Acute failure causes reduced urine output and blood chemical imbalance, including uremia. Most patients recover within six weeks. . In the past, scientists identified one main route for this destruction-high glucose produces oxidative stress oxidative stress, n an imbalance of the prooxidant antioxidant ratio in which too few antioxidants are produced or ingested or too many oxidizing agents are produced. through the NF-kB molecular pathway-but success has been elusive for drugs targeting that pathway. "Previously it was thought that oxidants are the major pathway, but antioxidants Antioxidants Substances that reduce the damage of the highly reactive free radicals that are the byproducts of the cells. Mentioned in: Aging, Nutritional Supplements antioxidants, n. don't seem to work in clinical trials," Nature quoted Dr. George L. King as saying. "That clinical observation made it clear that we don't know all the mechanisms involved," says Dr. Pedro Geraldes, lead author for the paper. Geraldes studied the effects on retinal pericytes (supportive tissue cells found near small blood vessels) in a bid to expand the search for what goes wrong as glucose levels climb. For a long time, scientists have known that the protein PDGF PDGF platelet-derived growth factor; interacting with cell surface receptors and stimulating hydrolysis of inositol 1,4,5-triphosphate (IP3). , a growth factor, is essential to a cell-survival pathway that is required to keep these retinal cells alive. Working both in cultured cells and diabetic animals, the researchers traced a molecular cascade that ends up increasing the expression of a novel target, the protein SHP-1, which de-activates PDGF activity and thus triggers cell death. "What's exciting is that we finally have an explanation for why antioxidant antioxidant, substance that prevents or slows the breakdown of another substance by oxygen. Synthetic and natural antioxidants are used to slow the deterioration of gasoline and rubber, and such antioxidants as vitamin C (ascorbic acid), butylated hydroxytoluene drugs may not work, because there's a parallel pathway. We'll need an inhibitor of SHP-1 together with antioxidants to have a realistic chance of preventing or stopping diabetic eye disease," said King. "We think this is also applicable to diabetic kidney disease, because we observed a similar increase in SHP-1 in the kidneys of diabetic animals," he added. Additionally, understanding the role that SHP-1 plays in cell survival pathways may shed light on studies of cancer and other diseases, he said. The study has been published in Nature Medicine. (ANI) Copyright 2009 Asian News International The Asian News International (ANI) agency provides multimedia news to China and 50 bureaus in India. It covers virtually all of South Asia since its foundation and presently claims, on its official website, to be the leading South Asia-wide news agency. (ANI) - All Rights Reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |
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