SYDNEY – Breakthrough X-ray research mapping how insulin works at a molecular level could lead to new diabetes treatments and end daily needle jabs for hundreds of millions of sufferers, scientists said on Thursday. A US-Australian team said it had revealed in atomic detail for the first time how the hormone insulin binds to the surface of cells, triggering the passage of glucose from the bloodstream so that it is stored as energy. Scientists have been trying to work out how this binding mechanism works for more than 20 years and the discovery should unlock new and more effective drugs to treat diabetes, lead researcher Mike Lawrence said. “Until now, we have not been able to see how these molecules interact with cells,” said Lawrence, from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne. “We can now exploit this knowledge to design new insulin medications with improved properties, which is very exciting.” Communities all over the world welcomed the breakthrough. There is a high prevalence of diabetes for people in the Gulf region. Diabetes is currently the fastest growing debilitating disease in the world. In the UAE for example, one out of five people aged between 20 to 79 live with diabetes, while a similar percentage of population is at risk of developing it. The UAE ranks second highest worldwide for diabetes prevalence followed by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Kuwait. A study, published in the journal Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, estimated the prevalence of diabetes for adults aged 20-79 for every country in the world. The tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru came top in 2010 with 31 percent. UAE totaled 19 percent and Saudi Arabia with 17 percent, which in numbers in the Kingdom?s case are 2,065,300 people diagnosed with the disease in 2010. In 2011, 32.8 million people or 9.1 percent of the adult population of the Middle East and North Africa region had diabetes, a number projected to almost double to 60 million in less than 20 years. Lawrence said the team's study, published in the journal Nature, had revealed a “molecular handshake” between the insulin and its receptor, or docking point, located on the surface of cells. “Both insulin and its receptor undergo rearrangement as they interact — a piece of insulin folds out and key pieces within the receptor move to engage the insulin hormone,” he said of the “unusual” binding method. Understanding how this docking works opens the way to novel treatments of diabetes, a chronic condition in which the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or the body cannot use the hormone properly. It could also have applications in the treatment of cancer and Alzheimer's, with insulin playing a role in both diseases, he added. — Agencies
