Diabetic Digest - October 11, 2017

Readers:

New drug treatments for diabetes maybe coming sooner than later thanks to a study at the Mount Sinai's Icahn School of Medicine.

Researchers have discovered that rare benign pancreatic tumors may lead to the key of future treatment. This is very interesting and exciting for the diabetic community.

Make sure to read today's article to learn more about this development.

Regards,
Steve

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Comments? Questions? Email Steve



*-- Diabetic News --*
Rare benign tumors may hold genetic recipe to fight diabetes
Researchers at Mount Sinai's Icahn School of Medicine have found rare benign tumors called insulinomas contain a way to regenerate insulin-producing beta cells.

Insulinomas, rare pancreatic tumors that secrete too much insulin, may hold the key to the development of new drugs to treat diabetes, researchers report in a new study that was published today in Nature Communications.

Roughly 30 million people living in the United States have diabetes and nearly 50 to 80 million are living with prediabetes. Diabetes stems from either not having enough beta cells in the pancreas, or beta cells secreting too little insulin, the hormone required to keep blood sugar levels in the normal range

In type 1 diabetes, the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys beta cells in the pancreas, while type 2 diabetes is caused by a deficiency of functioning beta cells in the pancreas.

"For the first time, we have a genomic recipe -- an actual wiring diagram in molecular terms that demonstrates how beta cells replicate," Dr. Andrew Stewart, director of the Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine, said in a press release.

For the study, researchers collected 38 human insulinomas and analyzed the genomics and expression patterns of the tumors.

"When you think of tumor genomics, you're thinking of breast cancer or colon cancer, leukemia, et cetera. No one is thinking of doing genomics on tumors that don't really kill people," Stewart said.

"So the real innovation here is that we collected benign tumors that don't metastasize and don't cause great harm, and we're trying to use these benign tumors that have beta cell regeneration going on in them, as the only reasonable source of genomic information on how to make beta cells regenerate."

The development of drugs that could increase the number of healthy beta cells is a priority in diabetes research.

"In this case, we looked at millions of data points collected in rare human insulinomas to try and find an answer to a common disease, diabetes," said Carmen Argmann, associate professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at Icahn.

"We plan to explore clinical applications of these new findings in close collaboration with the team at Sema4, a company specializing in big data analytics for diagnostic development."



*-- Diabetic News --*
ROASTED ONION SOUP
INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup fresh Parmesan cheese, grated
3 Spanish onions, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced
1/4 cup brandy
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 garlic head, large, cloves separated, peeled and cut in
half 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
3 large shallots, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced

DIRECTIONS:
Set oven rack at the lowest level; preheat to 450 degrees.

Combine onions, shallots, garlic and oil in a large shallow roasting pan. Roast for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, or until the onions are golden.

Remove from oven and pour in one-fourth of the chicken stock. Stir liquid in the pan, scraping the bottom to loosen and dissolve any caramelized bits. (The liquid will become quite dark.)

Transfer the onion mixture to a soup pot and add brandy, thyme and the remaining chicken stock. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and top with Parmesan cheese.

Yield: approx 4 Servings
Categories: Soups

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