Getting to the root cause New research from the Garvan Institute may help in the treatment of type 2

Scientists have identified an enzyme in fat tissue as a key diabetes driver, opening up potential new treatments

New research has further highlighted an enzyme’s role in diabetes, demonstrating that it works in fat. Now, scientists are homing in on a way to block its function.

Most of us think of our fat tissues as where we store energy (whether we like it or not), but growing evidence is revealing that fat is a dynamic endocrine organ that sends messages throughout the body. The nature of fat cells, and how they change, could have wide-ranging, complex implications for type 2 diabetes.

This recent discovery by researchers from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, throws into doubt the traditional definition of diabetes as a disease of the pancreas, muscle and liver.

Due to the decline in the body’s reaction to insulin, type 2 research has generally focused on the pancreas (which produces insulin) and muscle and liver (because of their roles in storing and releasing blood sugar).

However, the breakthrough discovery from Garvan’s

Associate Professor Carsten Schmitz-Peiffer (pictured above right) is that an enzyme in fat tissue is another important driver in diabetes.

Target for a treatment

What the science also highlighted is the significant role the PKC enzyme plays as a driver of the disease, which identifies it as a prime target for a new way to treat diabetes.

Garvan researchers are now collaborating with the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences to develop a drug that will specifically target and block the enzyme. “By blocking PKC function, we hope to improve the body’s insulin action, as well as the controlled release of insulin by the pancreas, to have a two-fold impact,” Associate Professor Schmitz-Peiffer explains, emphasising the need for the drug to act only on the target enzyme.

“Because diabetes is a chronic disease and we know that people could be on this medication for a lifetime, it has to be extremely specific in blocking this enzyme while not causing off-target effects.”

This new approach to treating diabetes is still in vitro, meaning it’s early days. “We’ve had very encouraging ‘screening hits’ and are now tweaking these molecules and will be testing them in cell models,” Associate Professor Schmitz-Peiffer says.

The course of drug development is a slow and methodical process.

When researchers are able to produce a drug that is potent and selective enough, they will progress to animal tests and then, if all goes according to plan, human clinical trials.

In the meantime, for those who are overweight or obese and are impacted by type 2, the findings also indicate that losing weight through a healthy diet and exercise plan should still be on your radar.