An accidental drug discovery could be the answer to preventing and curing type 1 diabetes, as scientists embark on new trials to find out if a blood pressure drug will work for other illnesses
A drug normally used for blood pressure, heart complaints and migraines could hold the key to curing type 1 diabetes.
Type 1 is the genetic strain of the disease, as opposed to type 2, which is more common (90 per cent of diabetes patients in the UK have type 2).
There are around five million diabetes sufferers in the UK, 10 per cent have Type 1 (REX)
There are around five million diabetes sufferers in the UK, 10 per cent have Type 1 (REX)
Type 2 diabetes is caused by lifestyle factors such as being overweight, and in many cases can be managed or even reversed by lifestyle changes. But because type 1 is caused by the body's failure to make insulin, it needs to be treated medically.
Currently there is no cure or prevention for type 1 diabetes. Instead it's managed with careful monitoring and reactive treatment. But unexpectedly, research into the drug Verapamil, has given scientists hope that a more effective treatment could be in sight.
Insulin is a protein that we need to keep our blood sugar level stable. It works by enabling sugar in the blood stream to enter cells where the body can use it as energy.
When you eat, the food is broken down into sugars, which enter the blood stream, raising our blood sugar level.
When this happens, a signal is sent to the pancreas, telling the cells to make insulin. It does this and releases it into the blood stream, where the insulin unlocks pathways into the cells for the sugar to be absorbed and used. This in turn lowers our blood sugar level.
Diabetics need to regularly test their blood sugar levels and inject insulin if required.
Tests on mice and on human cells have shown that the drug could help reduce the amount of a protein called TXNIP in the body, which has been found to thwart pancreas cells when they try to make essential insulin.
The next step in the research is for the team at The University of Alabama in Birmingham, US, to begin conducting human trials. They've been given a grant of $2.1million over the next three years to investigate.
It's an exciting development because this type of treatment has never been tried before and could be the key to helping the body's own cells to make the insulin it needs, returning it to normal function.
The drug could also potentially be used to treat more extreme cases of Type 2 diabetes, where lifestyle changes have failed.
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