Carrying high blood sugar levels in a body can lead to a range of disorders such as heart disease, kidney failure, nerve damage, vision issues, or problems with the feet that eventually necessitate amputation.
Type 2 diabetics can manage the condition through diet and exercise. However, if that’s not enough, they also will need medications or insulin therapy to regulate their blood sugar and prevent complications. Although insulin generally works, it can lead to side effects including weight gain. In addition, depending on where the patient lives in the world, insulin can be costly.
A recent study, led by researcher Dr. Celine Busch at Amsterdam University Medical Center, introduced a procedure that no longer needed insulin called recellularization via electroporation therapy (ReCET).
Electroporation is an endoscopic operation that applies controlled electric pulses to make small, irreversible holes in the cell membranes. It is often used to facilitate DNA delivery into cells. In the study, it’s being used to enhance the body’s sensitivity to its insulin.
The study was conducted with a small group of 14 participants ages between 28 and 75 years and monitored over 2 years. After the endoscopic procedure, the participants had to follow a strict isocaloric liquid diet for two weeks. Then, they began a course of weekly semaglutide medication, which is prescribed for treating type 2 diabetics by controlling blood sugar.
At the 6- and 12-month follow-ups, 12 out of 14 participants reported that they no longer required insulin therapy. At the 24-month mark, they didn’t need it either. The result was reported there were no serious adverse effects and one patient couldn’t tolerate the maximum dose of semaglutide because of nausea.
According to Dr. Busch, while drug therapy requires daily medication adherence, ReCET doesn’t. Therefore, it can address the critical issue of ongoing patient adherence in managing type 2 diabetes.
Not only that, the treatment is also disease-modifying as it improves the patient’s sensitivity to their insulin. This means it can tackle the root cause of the disease, instead of being disease-controlling as currently available drug therapies.
The research team will conduct larger, randomized trials to validate the findings of this study before making it more widely.
Article Source: UEG
Image by: Mykenzie Johnson on Unsplash
