Generally Type 2 Diabetes drugs either stimulate the production of insulin hormone or act in a way that affects sensitivity to this hormone. Researchers at the Ohio State University have developed a drug which inhibits an inflammation-producing protein in Type 2 Diabetes patients. The drug is novel because normally diabetes medicines try to reduce the blood sugar level in the body with out addressing the other hallmark of this disease, which is the increased levels of inflammation- producing proteins. The findings of the research are published in the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. This article tries to gain further insight on the latest finding (March 2010).

Knowledge Gained From Research:

• Type 2 Diabetic patients have increased levels of macrophage migration inhibitory factor, or MIF protein which produces inflammation in the body.
• The researchers found that in genetically-engineered experimental mice, lacking this protein, the symptoms of developing Type 2 Diabetes were very less.
• When the drug under investigation was given to experimental diabetic mice, the levels of glucose decreased in the blood.
• However, the blood sugar levels increased when the drug was stopped, which implies that this medicine cannot cure but only treat diabetes.
• It is was found in the study that the genetically engineered experimental mice lacking MIF protein, produced very less amount of naturally found chemicals Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha (TNF-alpha).
• These chemicals produce inflammation in the body in order to fight infection and repair injuries.
• But when they are produced in the body without the presence of infections or injury, it turns out to be counter productive to a diabetic patient’s body.
• In this way, this study established the fact that further research on diabetes can be carried out on finding drugs which can target MIF protein effectively.
• The researchers explained that the molecule in the drug gets attached with MIF protein in such a way that its molecular structure changes and it remains no more biologically active.
• Though MIF is always present in the body, its presence in excess amounts make it active.
• While the drug blocked the activities of MIF proteins in laboratory, it showed no side effects.