Canadian and German researchers are teaming up to identify new drug combinations to treat people with obesity and type 2 diabetes.
The goal is to develop personalized prescriptions that are more effective than single drugs and can potentially replace more invasive treatments such as bariatric surgery, especially for children.
“As a pediatric endocrinologist, I can tell you that we are seeing more and more type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents, and it seems to be a more aggressive form than adult-onset diabetes, so we have need better therapies to achieve even greater efficacy. and degree of weight loss,” said Andrea Haqq, a professor in the University of Alberta’s faculty of medicine and dentistry.
Researchers recently published a paper that examines the potential of several drugs that control incretins. These metabolic hormones stimulate the body to produce insulin and use it efficiently. They also suppress appetite in order to control blood sugar and reduce weight.
The researchers conclude that combining the drugs has several advantages, including greater efficacy in at least some patients and fewer side effects.
Even 5% weight loss is considered clinically significant, and patients in some of the combination drug trials are achieving 10 or 15%, said Haqq, who is a member of the Alberta Diabetes Institute and Women and Children’s Health Research. Institute.
Haqq’s lab collaborates with that of Timo Müller, director of the Diabetes and Obesity Institute at the Helmholtz Diabetes Center and researcher at the German Diabetes Research Center in Munich, Germany.
As part of the collaboration with the Müller team, first author Qiming Tan, a doctoral candidate at the U of A School of Medicine and Dentistry, will study for a semester in Germany, and a German student will join the laboratory of Haqq here.
Haqq and Tan recommend further research to determine why some people respond differently to medications. Certain racial and ethnic groups carry a disproportionate burden of obesity and type 2 diabetes, they said, so more participants from these groups are needed in trials. Further studies should also focus on how biological sex differences affect drug efficacy and safety.
In addition to drug combinations, researchers are looking at non-pharmacological solutions, such as how adding fiber to a person’s diet can slow weight gain and improve the effectiveness of existing diabetes drugs. .
Source of the story:
Materials provided by University of Alberta. Original écrit par Gillian Rutherford. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.