研究：发现新药物成分能够延缓2型糖尿病的发生

　　最近来自纽约大学石溪分校医学院的研究人员发现了一种药物成分能够通过阻断降解胰岛素的相关酶类（insulin-degrading enzyme IDE）而延缓二型糖尿病发生。这一发现可能将导致新的糖尿病疗法的诞生。动物试验显示，这种药物成分能够有效增加血液中胰岛素浓度，进而促进血糖降低。而负责这一研究的Markus Seelige目前正对这一药物的结构进行分析并试图寻找出这种药物与IDE相互作用的机制。

　　据统计目前美国有超过2000万人患有二型糖尿病，而对于这种疾病的疗法一般集中于注射胰岛素、服药以增加机体对胰岛素敏感度或促进胰岛素分泌等策略上。

　　详细英文报道：

　　Scientists at Stony Brook Medicine in New York have discovered a compound that could block a protein involved in determining a person's predisposition to getting diabetes.

　　The findings may help researchers develop new diabetes treatments, which currently rely on patients either injecting insulin, taking medicine to make their body more sensitive to insulin, or taking other drugs to stimulate the production of insulin.

　　The compound works by inhibiting the insulin-degrading enzyme （IDE）， a protein involved in the removal of insulin from the blood. In obese mice, treatment with the compound elevated the animals' insulin levels and promoted healthy insulin signaling within the blood, according to Markus Seeliger, an assistant professor at Stony Brook University School of Medicine.

　　"A strategy to protect the remaining amounts of insulin produced by diabetics in response to blood sugar levels is an attractive treatment alternative, particularly in the early stages of Type 2 diabetes," Seeliger said in a statement.

　　Seeliger's lab then mapped the 3-D structure of the inhibitor compound and how it binds to the IDE and used it to further evaluate the compound's properties and characteristics.

　　The results, which Seeliger calls "extremely promising," were published in the journal Nature.

　　More than 20 million people in the U.S. have Type 2 diabetes, presenting a huge market for new therapeutic options. Seeliger said that a realistic treatment approach may be to use the compound to help the body retain insulin levels.