Leukemia: Cancer Cells Killed Off With Diabetes Drug

Leukemia: Cancer cells killed off with diabetes drug

Scientists may have found an innovative way to kill off cancer cells in acute myeloid leukemia, all the while preserving and regenerating healthy red blood cells.
The new study was carried out by researchers from the McMaster Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.
Mick Bhatia — a professor of biochemistry and biomedical sciences at McMaster University and director of the McMaster Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute — led the investigation, and the findings have been published in the journal Nature Cell Biology.
As the scientists explain, conventional methods for treating leukemia focus on targeting leukemic cells, paying little attention to preserving red blood cells.
But the production of healthy blood cells in the bone marrow is crucial for preventing leukemia patients from having anemia or fatal infections.
First study author Allison Boyd — a postdoctoral fellow at the McMaster Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute — says, "Our approach represents a different way of looking at leukemia and considers the entire bone marrow as an ecosystem, rather than the traditional approach of studying and trying to directly kill the diseased cells themselves."
"These traditional approaches have not delivered enough new therapeutic options for patients," she continues. "The standard-of-care for this disease hasn't changed in several decades."
The American Cancer Society (ACS) estimate that 21,380 people will be diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in 2017. Most of these will be adults, as AML tends to target seniors.
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Diet drinks and food actually trigger weight gain and diabetes, says new study

Diet drinks or foods may actually promote weight gain and trigger diabetes because the brain misreads the number of calories present and reduces metabolism, a new study suggests.
Researchers at Yale University in the US discovered that the body stops burning energy from food if there is a ‘mismatch’ between food sweetness and calories.
In nature, sweetness signals energy and the greater the sweetness the more calories are available, so the brain has evolved to expect the two to come together. When they do not, the brain can become confused, thinking there are fewer calories to burn.
This research should be enough to convince you that artificial ingredients, whether they be in food or drink, can screw up your systemTam Fry, National Obesity Forum
The scientists say it could help explain previous studies that have suggested that artificial sweeteners can increase blood sugar levels and possibly trigger diabetes.
“A calorie is not a calorie,” said senior author Dana Small, Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine.
“The assumption that more calories trigger greater metabolic and brain response is wrong. Calories are only half of the equation; sweet taste perception is the other half.
“Our bodies evolved to efficiently use the energy sources available in nature. Our modern food environment is characterized by energy sources our bodies have never seen before.
“When sweet taste and energy are not matched less energy is metabolized and weaker, or inaccurate, signals are sent to the brain. Either one of these effects may affect metabolic health.” Continue reading

Increased Prevalence in Diabetes Among Chinese Adults

Studies show that half of Chinese adults have an increased risk for prediabetes and diabetes; Tibetan and Muslim Chinese at lowest risk.
Diabetes has been growing drastically throughout the years, serving as one of the major risk factors of morbidity and mortality among various individuals. Diabetes is a risk factor for several disease states, which include but are not limited to ischemic heart disease, stroke, chronic kidney disease and myocardial infarctions. As one of the largest countries in the world, China contributes to this increase in morbidity and mortality and moreover diabetes pandemic. The prevalence of diabetes in China has been increasing since 1980 from less than 1% to 9.7% with approximately 92.4 million adults in China affected. As such, adults in China with diabetes are prone to losing, on average, nine years of life compared to those who do not have diabetes.
In the study titled Half of Chinese Adults Have Pre-diabetes or Diabetes, researchers estimated the prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes in Chinese adults. A cross-sectional study was conducted in several parts of China, using 170,287 participants, aged 18 years or older. Glycemic control was measured using fasting plasma glucose and hemoglobin A1c for those who have diabetes and a 2-hour oral glucose for individuals without diabetes. Main outcomes and measures were assessed using total diabetes and prediabetes as primary outcomes, in addition to awareness and treatment measures to diabetes. Approximately 36.5% participants with diabetes were aware of their diagnosis, 32.2% of individuals with dia Continue reading

Blind Cave Fish Beat Back Diabetes Symptoms That Would Kill People

[Editor's note: This story was updated on Sept. 22, 2017, to state that geneticist Cliff Tabin's remarks were made as part of his scientific talk.]
For months fish that live in dark caves in Mexico go without food. They have gone far longer—millennia—without light, evolving to lose their eyes and skin pigments.
Now researchers have discovered these strange creatures have another oddity. To survive their food-scarce environment, the fish have evolved extreme ways of turning nutrients into energy. These features create symptoms like large blood sugar swings that, in humans, are precursors of type 2 diabetes. But in the fish these changes are adaptations, not a disease. These cave fish lead long and healthy lives.
Understanding how the fish remain healthy in spite of these ominous symptoms may lead to new therapeutic approaches for treating diabetes in people, notes Cliff Tabin, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School. Tabin identified these features and described them last month at a meeting of the Pan-American Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology in Calgary. And he and his colleagues are beginning to get clues about how cave fish pull off this feat.
In humans and other mammals one of the first signs of type 2 diabetes risk is poor control of blood sugar (glucose). This happens because cells resist insulin, the hormone that signals cells to take in glucose from the bloodstream. If the problems continue, they progress into full-blown diabetes characterized by blood glucose levels of 140 milligrams per deciliter or higher, organ failure, leaky blood vessels, damage Continue reading

Diabetes has 'quadrupled' around world in about 30 years, says WHO

The number of people with diabetes has quadrupled around the world over the last 35 years, according to a new report.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that diabetes is now a "serious threat to population health" as obesity fuels a rise in the disease.
And, while it was once more confined to richer countries, the 2016 WHO report warns that diabetes is now rising fastest in middle and lower-income countries.
Margaret Chan, director-general at the WHO, said those with diabetes in poorer countries were in particularly difficult situations.
"No longer a disease of predominantly rich nations, the prevalence of diabetes is steadily increasing everywhere, most markedly in the world's middle-income countries," said Dr Chan.
"People with diabetes who depend on life-saving insulin pay the ultimate price when access to affordable insulin is lacking."
Diabetes is a chronic disease which occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin - the hormone which regulates blood sugar.
Sufferers can have high levels of blood sugar as a result, which over time can lead to serious damage to many of the body's nerves and blood vessels,aeffecting the heart, eyes and kidneys.
While Type 1 diabetes is brought on in childhood for unknown reasons, Type 2 diabetes – the more common type – is largely the result of being overweight and not exercising.
Whereas about 108 million people suffered from the disease in 1989, that number has nearly quadrupled to 422 million by 2014, the report found.
And diabetes among adults has increased from 4.7 per cent of the global population 36 yea Continue reading