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Monash University researchers are investigating the structure of proteins present in the pancreas to gain a better understanding of how Type 1 diabetes develops. They hope the research will lead to the development of a test kit for earlier detection of the disease.
About one million Australians suffer from diabetes, but almost half of them remain undiagnosed. In Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas fails to produce insulin for the body due to cell damage. It can result in blindness, kidney disease, heart disease and stroke, and damage to limbs that can lead to amputation.
Associate Professor Osama El-Kabbani, from the Victorian College of Pharmacy, and Associate Professor Merrill Rowley, from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Monash, are examining the interactions between antibodies and enzymes to determine how damage occurs to the pancreas and whether a molecule could be developed to detect the disease earlier.
"If we could detect diabetes earlier, we could start treating earlier and people would live healthier lives for longer," Dr El-Kabbani said.
Dr El-Kabbani and Dr Rowley are using three-dimensional computer-generated structural models to determine what parts of the enzyme glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) interact with antibodies, leading to the destruction of islet cells in the pancreas. This destruction results in Type 1 diabetes.
Dr Rowley said diabetes could be present long before symptoms became apparent. However, autoimmune responses to the islet cells of the pancreas could be detected up to 10 years before diabetes became evident, she said.
"In fact, detection of an autoimmune response to components of the islet cells, such as glutamic acid decarboxylase, proinsulin, and ICA512, is predictive of the future development of diabetes," Dr Rowley said. "This opens up the possibility of intervening to stop the disease process and so prevent further islet cell destruction, but we need to understand how the damaging immune response is initiated, how it damages tissue and then develop a diagnostic assay for earlier detection and treatment of autoimmune diseases."
Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here. ' |
