NCBS Bangalore Scientist’s Novel Discovery To Treat Type 2 Diabetes
Group of Scientists at NCBS Bangalore – National Centre for Biological Sciences have come up with a finding which could lead to the development of effective treatment for Type 2 Diabetes.
The research team has found an enzyme – PIP4K whose function is to determine the ability of cells to detect and respond to insulin. In Type 2 diabetes there is a reduction of the cell’s ability to respond to insulin after a meal. Its a global health threat and in India alone over 70 million people are reported to be diabetic. The discovery of PIP4K enzyme may address this health issue.
If a therapeutic agent is developed against this PIP4K enzyme that could inhibit its activity and in turn could produce more of phosphoinositide lipids required for a better response to insulin.
This research was coordinately supported by DBT – Govt of India & Wellcome Trust-DBT India Alliance Senior Fellowship along with National Centre for Biological Sciences. The reports of the study were published in Cell Reports.
Prof. Raghu Padinjat – Lead researcher said that
their team has identified an interesting connection of PIP4K enzyme with insulin signaling. The effects of insulin on cells can be changed by altering the function of PIP4K enzyme.The research was conducted using Drosophila as it is very much easier & convenient to analyze the functions of genes in a fruit fly by conducting suitable experiments which may not be possible if a bigger species is taken as a model organism. The use of fluorescence microscopy, molecular biology and biochemistry techniques were used throughout.
The NCBS Bangalore research team included -Sanjeev Sharma, Swarna Mathre, Visvanathan Ramya, and Dhananjay Sinde respectively as reported in India Science Wire.
