A research team from the Helmholtz Munich Research Center, the German Diabetes Research Center, and Novo Nordisk company has developed a new hormonal formulation to treat type 2 diabetes. Scientists combined in the new formulation the blood sugar-lowering effects of the drugs "tesaglitazar" and the gastrointestinal hormone (GLP-1), also known as "glucagon-like peptide-1," in a new and “highly effective” medication.
The advantage is that by combining "tesaglitazar" and "glucagon-like peptide-1" analog, the former only enters tissues containing receptors for the latter, which reduces the harmful effects of the former while enhancing the metabolic effects on sugar.
The new drug was successfully tested in animal studies. The results were published in the latest issue of the journal "Nature Metabolism." The drug "tesaglitazar" improves glucose and lipid metabolism in patients with type 2 diabetes and acts on two receptors inside the cell nucleus to increase insulin sensitivity, which was proven in phase three clinical trials.
However, "tesaglitazar" also caused undesirable effects, such as signs of kidney damage. For therapeutic use of the drug, researchers used a trick; they combined it biochemically with the gastrointestinal hormone (GLP-1), which has been successfully used for several years to treat type 2 diabetes, and this combined drug acts only on cells and tissues containing receptors for this hormone.
Timo Müller, professor at the German Diabetes Research Center and the principal investigator of this work, said in a report published the day before yesterday on the center’s official website: "The new drug improves glucose tolerance and sugar metabolism, and the new drug has already been successfully tested in studies conducted on animals."
He adds: "The drug significantly improved sugar metabolism in obese and diabetic male mice compared to treatment with GLP-1 hormone alone or tesaglitazar alone, and without any harmful effects."
The treatment was particularly effective in increasing glucose tolerance levels, and only low doses of the new drug were required to achieve sustainable improvement in glucose metabolism.
Aaron Novikov, another lead author of the study, says: "This drug has great potential for acute treatment of high blood sugar levels associated with type 2 diabetes."
Researchers are now seeking to conduct clinical trials and test whether the effectiveness of this new combined treatment can be further improved with biochemical modifications.