Identifying and treating secretory defects during Diabetes
- Reference number
- SM18-0041
- Start and end dates
- 190101-211231
- Amount granted
- 777 000 SEK
- Administrative organization
- Uppsala University
- Research area
- Life Sciences
Summary
Insulin regulates glucose homeostasis and hence prevents hyperglycemia. Recent developments in the field suggest increased glucagon and decreased somatostatin contribute to hyperglycemia during diabetes. This opens up various possibilities to develop drug targets that regulate the secretion of glucagon and somatostatin. To pursue these possibilities there has to be reliable assays to measure glucagon and somatostatin. Although Mercodia has reliable assays for insulin and more recently glucagon they are still in the development phase for somatostatin assays. The project is hindered by lack of experts and availability of cells to test their assays. The home department has regular access to human islets and we have developed ways to identify somatostatin producing delta cells. Therefore our expertise and availability of material gives us a unique opportunity to collaborate and develop 1) somatostatin assay, 2) develop assay to read all three hormones viz. insulin, glucagon and somatostatin in one go. This would aid in understanding how these hormones are affected in donor islets that we receive including type-2 diabetic ones. Overall this will help in developing new anti-diabetic drug targets and provide diagnostic tools to monitor diabetic patients regularly for glucagon or somatostatin levels to design treatment strategies.
Popular science description
I have a passion in diabetes research and have pursued it for over a decade now, during my masters thesis, PhD and postdoctoral period. The limitations of basic science academic research is decreased exposure to industry and therefore the market. This grant provides a unique opportunity to collaborate with a industry. In my case we have been working for many years on diabetes treatment targets in cells but have never had an opportunity to test any of this in people. This is due to the long time it takes for basic research material to end up in a drug for clinical trials. Mercodia is a leading company focusing on diabetes diagnostics for many decades. Their products are extensively used in research purposes too. We came in contact with them as customers for learning if they have assays for measuring pancreatic hormones. Although they have some assays, many more are in development phase. A lot of expertise goes in to development and many times lack of ideas is a limitation. We were in a unique position where we had experience with advanced single cell measurements. So we could offer them ideas which could fasten assay development. Testing new assays is as critical for the development process. Sometimes testing is limited by lack of availability of material. In case of Mercodia they do not have access to human cells to test their assays. We have access to human islets and cells through Nordic Network from Clinical Islet Transplantation. Therefore we can test their assays in human tissue which would also hasten the process of assay development. If everything works out we could develop not only assays for research purposes but also to monitor diabetics during their treatment. Therefore this could directly benefit more than 7% of the population who are suffering from Diabetes in Sweden alone.