Drugs with no apparent diabetes seem to have an impact on the disease. If the effect of aspirin was reported in 1876, the deleterious consequences of tranquilizers, assumptions were very recent. Doctissimo returns on these discoveries.
Following clinical observations in patients under treatment, brand new therapies and better management could be defined. Aspirin could pave the way for new drugs as tranquilizers are to be monitored.
Aspirin and diabetes: relationship finally elucidated
In 1876, a doctor reported improved health status of one of his diabetic patients following administration of aspirin. This observation aroused so little interest, and it is only in the 1950s that a medical team put in evidence the reduction of blood sugar (glucose) bound to high doses of aspirin.
Since then, the mechanisms remained unknown. Researchers at Harvard University and the University of California have finally solved a mystery. Student's mice genetically predisposed to diabetes and obesity, Pr Shoelson and his colleagues have their high doses of aspirin. A result: the compound blocks the action of an enzyme called IKKbeta. This action increases the production of insulin, lowers blood sugar and the concentration of fats (triglycerides) in blood. These effects last as long as the mice received aspirin.
Will we soon fight against diabetes with aspirin? On this point, researchers remain cautious. The dose aspirin, for the moment, seemed too important to consider this type of treatment without fear of devastating side effects on the stomach, liver or kidneys.
However, this discovery helped reveal a target for the development of future treatments against diabetes type 2: the enzyme IKKbeta. Before this hope can one day be realized, it will go to animal testing to humans.
Is there a perverse effect of tranquilizers?
According to data published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, some old or new antipsychotic drugs may promote the onset or exacerbation of type two diabetes.
In reaching this conclusion, the authors reviewed the medical records and claims of certain pension Health Insurance United States involving nearly 2.5 million people. A total of 4308 severely mentally ill patients under treatment was compared with 3,625 psychotic patients, not following any treatment. Of course, patients with diabetes had initially been excluded from this study.
They studied the frequency of new cases of type two diabetes in patients untreated and in those under five categories of antipsychotics. A result: If the risk of developing type two diabetes does not appear greater with risperidone, it is multiplied by more than 7 with clozapine, for 3 with olanzapine ...
This is not the first time that antipsychotics (used to treat schizophrenia) are accused in this way. By 1994, this link was suspected 3. In July 2002, the number of cases reported to the Food and Drug Administration since 1994 and a census paper at the Congress of Psychiatry since 2001, enumerated 237 cases of diabetes in patients taking olanzapine, 188 were newly diagnosed and 44 exacerbations of the disease. Moreover, the average age of patients showing signs of diabetes was ten years younger than that usually seen in the global population 4.
These studies could lead to tomorrow's fresh treatments or new boards of management of diabetes. The game is worth it because there was no fewer than 143 million diabetics international in 1998 and projections for 2025 show 300 million patients, including 2.4 million. Although it is not there either a contagious disease, diabetes is epidemic proportions worldwide.
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