UAB diabetes researchers: Old drug could provide new promise for diabetes patients

UAB researchers made a breakthrough in diabetes research.

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Diabetes Center say they have found that an old blood pressure drug could improve the lives of patients with Type I diabetes.

According to a report from UAB, diabetes affects more than 30 million Americans. UAB's research has led to the discovery of a "safe and effective novel therapy to reduce insulin requirements and hypoglycemic episodes in adult subjects with recent onset Type 1 diabetes."

A common blood pressure medicine, verapamil, can be administered orally and will prompt the patient's body to produce more of their own insulin. According to UAB research, this limits the amount of insulin needed overall.

"While this research is not an end-all cure for Type 1 diabetes, these findings are getting us closer to disease-altering therapies that can enable individuals with Type 1 diabetes to have more control over their disease and maintain some of their body's own insulin production," said Anath Shalev, director of UAB's CDC.

In 2014, Shalev found that verapamil reversed the effects of Type 1 diabetes and the human trials began after the CDC received a $2.1 million grant from the JDRF, a research fund focused on diabetes research.

The team at UAB found a way to promote the patient's own beta cell function and insulin production, and their findings were published this week by Nature Medicine.

The clinical trials saw 24 patients between the ages of 18 to 45 over the course of a year. According to UAB, 11 patients received the blood pressure medication and 13 received a placebo.

"Although this is a smaller sample group, our trial results give us promise that subjects with Type 1 diabetes have therapy options and that we are nearing a more effective way to deal with this disease," said Fernando Ovalle, director of UAB's Comprehensive Diabetes Clinic and co-principal investigator of the study. "Beyond verapamil allowing subjects with Type 1 diabetes the ability to live a life with less external insulin dependence, these findings will impact the quality of life that they can have."

Ovalle said by improving blood sugar control, patients suffering from Type 1 diabetes will experience fewer heart attacks, blindness, kidney disease and other issues.

According to UAB, the finding is "groundbreaking" in the field, and the data collected from the clinical trials have proven to be safe and effective.

Shalev said the results of the trail reassured the team that they are on the right track.

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