Discovery fires hopes of halting diabetes | The Australian
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THE AUSTRALIAN
Discovery fires hopes of halting diabetes
RACHEL BAXENDALE THE AUSTRALIAN OCTOBER 29, 2015 12:00AM
Monash University researchers have identified a protein which causes pre-diabetes,
paving the way for prevention of a disease affecting 1.7 million Australians.
The team, led by Matthew Watt from Monash’s Biomedicine Discovery Institute, singled out
a protein called Fetuin B, which is present in high levels in patients with non-alcoholic fatty
liver disease, which is a precursor to type two diabetes.
About 60 per cent of obese adults have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, placing them at risk
of developing type two diabetes.
In patients tested in Melbourne and The Netherlands, the protein was shown to impair the
actions of insulin, providing an explanation, and a potential therapeutic target, for a major
cause of diabetes.
The researchers discovered, initially in mice prone to diabetes, that the protein was only
present in high levels in mice with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which were also prediabetic or diabetic.
When the scientists reduced the Fetuin B levels in the liver and blood of the obese mice, they
became more sensitive to insulin. In human trials, volunteers who were obese but not diabetic
did not have high levels of Fetuin B.
Professor Watt said scientists had previously thought diabetes was caused by being fat, rather
than the way in which fat was stored in the body. “What we’re now finding is that it’s the
storage of fat in the liver which creates the problems and causes the proteins secreted in the
liver to change,” Professor Watt said.
“The important part of the story, from a public health perspective, is that even if you’re not
fat, you can get fatty liver, mostly from a poor diet, and that can lead to diabetes. By
developing a drug that could block this protein, it may be possible to prevent the development
of diabetes in patients with fatty liver.”
The research was published in the journal Cell Metabolism.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/discovery-fires-hopes-of-halting... 30/10/2015