University of Virginia Health System

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UVa WINS GRANT TO STUDY GENE LINKED TO DIABETES

Dr. Jerry Nadler, chief of the division of endocrinology and metabolism at the University of Virginia Health System, has been awarded a $1.3 million grant over four years by the National Institutes of Health for research on a gene potentially involved in causing damage to the insulin-producing islet cells of the pancreas.

“We have discovered a very important pathway that could explain how certain kinds of damaging fats in the body can lead to loss of insulin-producing cells resulting in diabetes,” Nadler said. “Our research could have important implications in terms of new ways to maintain normal insulin secretion and prevent Type 1 diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes, and the more common form of Type 2, or adult onset diabetes.” 

About 18 million people in the U.S., or 6.3 percent of the population, has diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association (ADA). More than 5 million people are not aware they have the disease. Diabetes is also the fifth leading cause of death by disease in the U.S., according to the ADA, and the economic costs are staggering. One out of every ten health care dollars in the U.S. is spent on diabetes-related illnesses or complications such as heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, blindness or kidney disease.

Nadler and his research team at U.Va. believe that a gene called 12-Lipoxygenase may be involved in how excess fats in the body lead to damage and dysfunction in insulin-producing cells. His research will test the hypothesis that the 12-Lipoxygenase (12LO) pathway plays a key role in inflammation, related to the body’s immune response, that may lead to the pancreatic islet cell dysfunction and death that brings on Type 1 diabetes.

Using mice with diabetes, Nadler and his team plan to characterize the activation of 12LO by proinflammatory compounds called cytokines in pancreatic islet cells that produce insulin. They also plan to study the role 12LO has in beta cell death and dysfunction and how 12LO action might be turned off or inhibited by molecular scissors called ribozymes. Nadler said the results of the study could provide new methods to preserve beta cells, ultimately leading to new therapies to prevent or treat diabetes.  

April 16, 2004