Breakthrough discovery could prevent diabetes from developing

By Joe Morgan

A molecule that can regulate blood sugars just like insulin could stop diabetes from developing, in a finding described as a "breakthrough discovery."

The hormone FGF1 could lower glucose in the blood in people at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes, say scientists.

More than one in three people in the United States have prediabetes.

Since the discovery of insulin a century ago millions of people are now able to live with diabetes but living with the disease can be avoided in some cases.

Treating prediabetes with FGF1 could inhibit fat breakdown, much like insulin does, but in a different way.

Previously, the lab showed injecting FGF1 dramatically lowered blood glucose in mice and that chronic FGF1 treatment relieved insulin resistance. But how it worked remained a mystery.

In the current work, researchers showed that FGF1 suppresses lipolysis - the process by which fats are broken down in our bodies through enzymes and water, as insulin does.

But the researchers discovered that the hormone and insulin use different signalling pathways to regulate blood glucose which could change the way diabetes, hyperglycaemia and insulin resistance is treated.

Professor Ronald Evans, at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, said: “Finding a second hormone that suppresses lipolysis and lowers glucose is a scientific breakthrough.

“We have identified a new player in regulating fat lipolysis that will help us understand how energy stores are managed in the body.”

Dr. Gencer Sancar, a researcher, said: "In insulin resistance, insulin signalling is impaired. However, with a different signalling cascade, if one is not working, the other can.

"That way you still have the control of lipolysis and blood glucose regulation."

Co-senior author Dr. Michael Downes said: “The unique ability of FGF1 to induce sustained glucose lowering in insulin-resistant diabetic mice is a promising therapeutic route for diabetic patients.

"We hope that understanding this pathway will lead to better treatments for diabetic patients.

"Now that we’ve got a new pathway, we can figure out its role in energy homeostasis in the body and how to manipulate it.”

The study was published in the journal Cell Metabolism.