[acb-diabetics] new study shows better control for type 1

[Greg Wocher]

Hello,
This article is great.  I have been a type one diabetic for nearly 32 
years.  I hope this new medicine will work in the larger study.
Sincerely,
Greg W.

On 6/24/2011 9:27 PM, Patricia LaFrance-Wolf wrote:
> 22-Jun-2011
>
> June 2011 - Results of a small, observational study conducted at the
> University at Buffalo suggest that liraglutide, an injectable medication
> used to treat type 2 diabetes, also helps type 1 diabetics on insulin
> achieve optimal control of their blood glucose levels.
>
> If the findings are confirmed in a larger, prospective, randomized study
> now being planned by the UB researchers, they could mean the first
> significant, new treatment for type 1 diabetes since insulin was
> discovered and made available in the 1920s.
>
> The research has been published online here
> <http://www.eje-online.org/content/early/2011/06/06/EJE-11-0330.abstract> in
> the European Journal of Endocrinology. It also was recently presented at
> the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in Boston, where it received
> recognition as one of the most outstanding abstracts presented and the
> best in the field of diabetes.
>
> "Since the development of injectable insulin, there has been nothing
> definitive in terms of a significant advance in type 1 diabetes
> treatments," says Paresh Dandona, MD, PhD, UB distinguished professor of
> medicine in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and senior
> author on the study. "That is the tragedy of the type 1 diabetic.
>
> "This study shows that liraglutide can provide even well-controlled type
> 1 diabetics with additional benefits that help them achieve even better
> blood glucose levels," says Dandona.
>
> The patients on liraglutide, which is marketed as Victoza, also saw a
> reduction in appetite and food intake and the paper reports that body
> weight significantly fell in patients who took the drug for 24 weeks.
>
> The unfunded study was a retrospective analysis of data. It was
> conducted at Kaleida Health's Diabetes-Endocrinology Center of Western
> New York, which Dandona directs.
>
> At the start of the study, all 14 patients had hemoglobin A1C levels of
> under 7, which is considered optimal. They were characterized in the
> paper as "well-controlledÂ…meticulous and disciplined" in terms of their
> ability to control their blood glucose levels with insulin.
>
> Nevertheless, Dandona notes, even well-controlled type 1 diabetics still
> experience "glycemic excursions," fairly wide swings in their blood
> glucose numbers ranging from the hyperglycemic, from 150 milligrams per
> deciliter to 250 mg/dl or higher to the hypoglycemic, under 70 mg/dl.
>
> "The addition of liraglutide to insulin therapy in these well-controlled
> type 1 diabetics resulted in a significant and rapid reduction in
> glycemic excursions and, as a consequence, a rapid reduction in the
> amount of insulin they needed to take," Dandona explains.
>
> Several figures in this presentation by Dandona clearly demonstrate this
> effect.
>
> These improvements occurred rapidly, within 1-2 days of beginning
> treatment with liraglutide and they reversed just as rapidly when
> treatment was discontinued, signifying that it was the drug that was
> responsible for these beneficial effects.
>
> The mechanism behind these improvements is not well-understood but
> Dandona and his co-authors suggest that liraglutide may be suppressing
> the post-meal increase in glucagon, the hormone that raises glucose
> levels, in type 1 diabetics.
>
> Dandona and his colleagues are now planning a much larger, multicenter
> study of liraglutide in type 1 diabetics.
>
> "We will be investigating in detail the hypothesis that it is
> liraglutide's ability to suppress glucagon that significantly reduces
> the wide swings in blood glucose levels that type 1 diabetics -- even
> those with very good glucose control -- live with everyday," says Dandona.
>
> The retrospective study involved 14 adult type 1 diabetics who took
> liraglutide for periods ranging from one week to 24 weeks.
>
> Co-authors with Dandona are: Ajay Varanesi, endocrinology fellow;
> Natalie Bellini, honorary research fellow; Deepti Rawal, MD, UB medical
> resident; Mehul Vora, clinical assistant instructor; Sandeep Dhindsa,
> assistant professor of medicine; Antoine Makdissi, assistant professor
> of medicine; and Ajay Chaudhuri, MD, associate professor of medicine.
>
> Source: University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
>
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