For diabetics who frequently suffer from kidney disease, a new therapeutic target has just been identified.
A new study has just identified enzymes that could prevent diabetic nephropathy in type 1 and 2 diabetics. In the first stage of the pathology, the attack is at the level of the renal filter. Then, if the kidney is affected, there is a risk of chronic kidney disease with, in the long term, the need for dialysis (which consists of performing an artificial purification of the blood).
Common denominator
“Diabetic kidney failure is a devastating disease,” notes Dr. Gordin, author of the research. “It is a powerful factor in cardiovascular disease and mortality. There is an urgent need to find ways to help those who suffer from it. All the studies on the question take time, but it is very promising”, adds- he.
His team struggled to find a common denominator between people who had diabetes for more than 50 years, with few or no complications – none of them had suffered from kidney failure, for example. Result: these patients had higher levels of a group of enzymes involved in glucose metabolism. “That would explain how these people were able to live with insulin-dependent diabetes for so many years,” Dr. Gordin continues.
Biomarker and therapeutic target
After further research, scientists have established that it is the enzyme known as pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) that protects against kidney disease. It could thus be used as a biomarker and as a therapeutic target.
One in ten French people has diabetes, and between 500,000 and 800,000 diabetics are unaware that they are sick. Type 2 diabetes, or fatty diabetes, usually appears in adulthood in overweight people. It represents 90% of cases of diabetes and reflects poor use of insulin by the body: it is insulin resistance. It primarily affects people over 40, but is beginning to be seen in some obese adolescents.
Type 1 diabetes, formerly called insulin-dependent diabetes (IDD), is usually discovered in young people: children, adolescents or young adults. The symptoms are generally intense thirst, abundant urine, rapid weight loss. This diabetes results from the disappearance of beta cells in the pancreas leading to a total insulin deficiency.
*An enzyme is a protein that catalyzes a biochemical reaction.
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