Diabetes News

Diabetic kidney disease may be more common than currently assumed according to new research presented at ASN Kidney Week 2014. A study of 150 deceased individuals with diabetes found nearly 50% had diabetic nephropathy at their time of death.

Routine heart imaging screenings for people with diabetes at high risk to experience a cardiac event, but who have no symptoms of heart disease, does not help them avoid heart attacks, hospitalization for unstable angina or cardiac death, according to a new study. High-quality diabetes care is still the most effective way for diabetics to avoid heart attacks, according to the study by researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Murray, Utah.

The National Diabetes Education Program's has released new Guiding Principles, which outlines 10 clinically useful principles for health care professionals that highlight areas of agreement in diabetes management and prevention and is supported by more than a dozen federal agencies and professional organizations. The guiding principles aim to identify and synthesize areas of general agreement among existing guidelines to help guide primary care providers and health care teams to deliver quality care to adults with or at risk for diabetes. 

New research conducted at the University of Alabama at Birmingham has shown that the common blood pressure drug verapamil completely reverses type 1 diabetes in animal models. Now, with the help of a three-year, $2.1 million grant from the JDRF, UAB researchers will begin conducting a clinical trial in 2015 to see if it can do the same in humans. The trial, known as “the repurposing of verapamil as a beta cell survival therapy in type 1 diabetes,” is scheduled to begin early next year and has come to fruition after more than a decade of research efforts in UAB’s Comprehensive Diabetes Center. The trial will test an approach different from any current diabetes treatment by focusing on promoting specialized cells in the pancreas called beta cells, which produce insulin the body needs to control blood sugar. UAB scientists have proved through years of research that high blood sugar causes the body to overproduce a protein called TXNIP, which is increased within the beta cells in response to diabetes, but had never previously been known to be important in beta cell biology. Too much TXNIP in the pancreatic beta cells leads to their deaths and thwarts the body’s efforts to produce insulin, thereby contributing to the progression of diabetes. But UAB scientists have also uncovered that the drug verapamil, which is widely used to treat high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, and migraine headaches, can lower TXNIP levels in these beta cells — to the point that, when mouse models with established diabetes and blood sugars above 300 milligrams per deciliter were treated with verapamil, the disease was eradicated. “We have previously shown that verapamil can prevent diabetes and even reverse the disease in mouse models and reduce TXNIP in human islet beta cells, suggesting that it may have beneficial effects in humans as well,” said Anath Shalev, MD, director of UAB’s Comprehensive Diabetes Center and principal investigator of the verapamil clinical trial. “That is a proof-of-concept that, by lowering TXNIP, even in the context of the worst diabetes, we have beneficial effects. And all of this addresses the main underlying cause of the disease — beta cell loss. Our current approach attempts to target this loss by promoting the patient’s own beta cell mass and insulin production. There is currently no treatment available that targets diabetes in this way.”

Male and female brains are not equal when it comes to the biological response to a high-fat diet, according to a study by Cedars-Sinai Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute scientist Deborah Clegg, PhD, and a team of international investigators. The researchers found that the brains of male laboratory mice exposed to the same high-fat diet as their female counterparts developed brain inflammation and heart disease that were not seen in the females.

The National Kidney Foundation has launched a new app and website, called My Food Coach, that allows people to customize meal plans based on food preferences and/or chronic conditions such as kidney disease, diabetes, and heart disease.

Serum high-sensitivity-C-reactive protein levels were associated with a risk of developing, but not progressing, diabetic nephropathy in type 2 diabetes patients, according to a new study published in Diabetes Care. Serum hs-CRP might be useful for predicting the future risk of developing diabetic nephropathy.

Primary care physicians should screen all adults over age 45 for diabetes every three years, according to new recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). Screening should be done earlier in adults with certain risk factors that include obesity, family history of diabetes, and high blood pressure.

The National Kidney Foundation, the American Diabetes Association, and the American Society of Nephrology have collaborated and developed a consensus conference that brought together experts in nephrology and endocrinology to review current practices, and to identify knowledge gaps, research opportunities and ways to improve clinical outcomes related to kidney disease in diabetes.

Only about half of of the people the American Diabetes Association recommends should be screened for type 2 diabetes are being screened, according to a new study published in American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The study found that 53.2% of people over 45 who took part in the 2005–2010 National Health and Nutritional Examination (NHANES) and the 2006 national Health Interview Survey were screened for diabetes in the last three years. The ADA recommends people should be screened at 3-year intervals beginning at age 45, particularly in those with BMI ≥25 kg/m2. Testing should be considered at a younger age or be carried out more frequently in individuals who are overweight and have other risk factors, including habitual physical inactivity, obesity, hypertension, and family history of diabetes. The ADA also recommends earlier screening for African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Native Americans, Asian-Americans, and Pacific Islanders. The study found screening to be even less prevalent in minorities and those with lower socioeconomic status. "Public health efforts to address these deficiencies in screening are needed," the authors wrote. Study authors included Sarah Stark Casagrande, PhD; Catherine C. Cowie, PhD; and Saul M. Genuth, MD. Overall, the prevalence of having had a blood test to screen for diabetes in the past three years in adults aged 20 or older was 43.6% in NHANES. The prevalence of having a blood test increased with age and was lower in men (37.9%) than women (48.7%); Hispanics (38.9%) or Mexican Americans (38.6%) than non-Hispanic whites (44.5%) or non-Hispanic blacks (46.3%); those with less than a high school education (40.5%) compared with college graduates (46.6%); and in adults with a family income <$20,000 (39.2%) compared with ≥$75,000 (47.1%) (p<0.001 for all). Adults without health insurance, without self-reported prediabetes, and those who did not see any type of doctor in the past year were less likely to have a diabetes screening test compared to their respective counterparts, according to the study. "More emphasis on community screening programs and population-wide education programs would help increase the number of people who are screened for diabetes and would detect more cases," the authors wrote.