Breakthrough in diabetes research
Story here
The abstract is here:
The lowdown is that there appears to be simliarities between MS and Diabetes, in that the nervous system and immunosystem combine to produce a disease. Here they show that neurons play a role in inflammation of the B islet cells (those that produce insulin). Treatment with drugs that block the nervous system or elimination of specific neurons blocked the disease. I think this will force us to re-evaluate inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, chrons disease, and possibly autoimmune diseases such as MS and lupus.
The abstract is here:
In type 1 diabetes, T cell-mediated death of pancreatic β cells produces insulin deficiency. However, what attracts or restricts broadly autoreactive lymphocyte pools to the pancreas remains unclear. We report that TRPV1+ pancreatic sensory neurons control islet inflammation and insulin resistance. Eliminating these neurons in diabetes-prone NOD mice prevents insulitis and diabetes, despite systemic persistence of pathogenic T cell pools. Insulin resistance and β cell stress of prediabetic NOD mice are prevented when TRPV1+ neurons are eliminated. TRPV1NOD, localized to the Idd4.1 diabetes-risk locus, is a hypofunctional mutant, mediating depressed neurogenic inflammation. Delivering the neuropeptide substance P by intra-arterial injection into the NOD pancreas reverses abnormal insulin resistance, insulitis, and diabetes for weeks. Concordantly, insulin sensitivity is enhanced in trpv1−/− mice, whereas insulitis/diabetes-resistant NODxB6Idd4-congenic mice, carrying wild-type TRPV1, show restored TRPV1 function and insulin sensitivity. Our data uncover a fundamental role for insulin-responsive TRPV1+ sensory neurons in β cell function and diabetes pathoetiology.
The lowdown is that there appears to be simliarities between MS and Diabetes, in that the nervous system and immunosystem combine to produce a disease. Here they show that neurons play a role in inflammation of the B islet cells (those that produce insulin). Treatment with drugs that block the nervous system or elimination of specific neurons blocked the disease. I think this will force us to re-evaluate inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, chrons disease, and possibly autoimmune diseases such as MS and lupus.
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