July 28, 2009 (IFT) - Supplementing spaghetti with unripe banana flour may be a healthy addition since banana flour contains antioxidants and fiber, according to a study in the Journal of Food Science, published by the Institute of Food Technologists. Fiber-rich unripe banana flour contains resistant starch, a type of fiber that may aid in managing weight and type 2 diabetes. "As consumers are unlikely to eat sufficient amounts of vegetables and other fiber-rich foods directly, the supplementation of pasta with unripe banana flour can play an important role in achieving health benefits," says Edith Agama-Acevedo, lead researcher at the Centro de Desarrollo de Productos Bióticos del IPN in Mexico.

Banana flour was added to pasta in the study because pasta is considered a product with a low glycemic index, a rating that measures the effects of carbohydrates on blood sugar levels. Low glycemic responses are thought to be favorable to health because of possible prevention of heart disease and metabolic diseases like type 2 diabetes.

Researchers served spaghetti made from semolina and a semolina/banana flour blend to 200 Mexican consumers. "The preference of the banana flour-added spaghetti and the control was similar," says Agama-Acevedo. "The addition of tomato sauce increased the acceptability of the banana flour spaghetti. The spaghetti added with 30 and 45 percent of banana flour had higher acceptability than its control."

August 19, 2009 (EurekAlert) - Good news for people fearful of needles and squeamish of shots: Scientists at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society report the design of a painless patch that may someday render hypodermic needles - as well as annual flu shots - a thing of the past. Lined with tiny "microneedles," these patches could make treatment of diabetes and a wide range of other diseases safer, more effective and less painful. Used as tiny hypodermic needles, they could improve treatment of macular degeneration and other diseases of the eye.
"It's our goal to get rid of the need for hypodermic needles in many cases and replace them with a patch that can be painlessly and simply applied by a patient," says Mark Prausnitz, Ph.D. "If you can move to something that's as easy to apply as a band-aid, you've now opened the door for people to self-administer their medicine without special training."

Prausnitz says that advances in the electronics industry in microfabricating very small objects like transistors enabled the development of microneedles. "We've built off those technological advances to address a need in medicine," he explains. "We're trying to bring the two worlds together." Each needle is only a few hundred microns long, about the width of a few strands of human hair.

Prausnitz and his colleagues at the Georgia Institute of Technology suggest that the microneedle patch could, for instance, replace yearly trips to the doctor for flu shots.

"Although it would probably first be used in a clinical setting, our vision is to have a self-administered flu vaccine patch. So instead of making an appointment with your doctor to get your flu shot, you can stop by the pharmacy or even get a patch in the mail and self-apply. We think that could very much increase the vaccine coverage since it would be easier for people to be vaccinated," Prausnitz explains.

In a collaboration with Emory University, Prausnitz and his team administered flu vaccines via conventional injections and microneedle patches in mice. After exposing the mice to the flu, they compared the resulting immune response and antibody levels. They found that the antibody levels were the same by either route. Taking a closer look, they discovered that microneedle delivery resulted in a better protective immune response by other measures.

"Toward the goal of a flu vaccine patch, we are continuing the animal studies, but we're also working toward our first human trial, which we hope to do in 2010," Prausnitz says.

Microneedles are not just able to deliver drugs through the skin - they can also be used for targeted drug delivery in the eye. They may help create an improved treatment for macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the United States.

In recent years, macular degeneration has become treatable thanks to new drugs that halt and partially reverse the disease. The new drugs are a victory for the millions of patients suffering macular degeneration, but the treatment is not pleasant - the drugs must be injected directly into the eye every month.

"For the squeamish there are obvious drawbacks, but more importantly, there are real safety concerns about that kind of repeated injection into the eye. With a microneedle, we can still do the same kind of concept, injecting something into the eye, but we can now do it with a very short needle that doesn't penetrate all the way in," says Prausnitz, adding that "no one else is working on microneedle-based drug delivery to the eye."

He notes that microneedle treatments of the eye can target specific tissues in the eye. "In localizing the delivery, microneedle treatments for macular degeneration and other diseases of the eye may prove safer than conventional needles. We're now doing experiments with rabbits and non-human primates - we hope to have the first human trial in the next few years," says Prausnitz.

August 14, 2009 (Newswise) - Researchers from North Carolina State University and Mayo Clinic have developed a computer model that medical doctors can use to determine the best time to begin using statin therapy in diabetes patients to help prevent heart disease and stroke."The research is significant because patients with diabetes are at high risk for cardiovascular disease and statins are the single most commonly used treatment for patients at risk of heart disease and/or stroke," says Dr. Brian Denton, "and this model can help determine the best course of action for individual patients based on their risk of developing cardiovascular disease." Denton is an assistant professor in NC State's Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering and lead author of the study.

Statins are a key component of current cardiovascular medical treatment guidelines, Denton says. They lower cholesterol levels and may significantly reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke, particularly in patients that are considered to be at high risk.

The researchers developed a new mathematical model that examines various possible treatment policies to see how they influence short-term and long-term health outcomes for patients. The model shows how people are affected by diabetes, and how their health changes over time as patients age and the disease advances.

The new model incorporates patient-specific data. An established risk model calculates each patient's probability of heart attack and stroke based on risk factors, such as their cholesterol, blood pressure, etc. This overall risk "score" is used to weigh the medical advantages of beginning statin therapy against the financial cost of the statins.

Overall, by accounting for the progression of diabetes, the patient's specific risk score and the cost-benefit analysis, the new model may help patients and doctors decide on the optimal time to begin statin therapy.

Denton says the new model has not yet been put into practice, but that the research team plans to develop a pilot to put the tool into the hands of medical professionals.

The research, "Optimizing the Start Time of Statin Therapy for Patients with Diabetes," was funded in part by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Science Foundation, and was published earlier this month in the journal Medical Decision Making. The research was co-authored by Denton from NC State; Nilay D. Shah, Sandra C. Bryant and Steven A. Smith of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine; and University of Pittsburgh graduate student Murat Kurt.

August 13, 2009 (FDA) -
For Diabetic patients and/or their caregivers

Advice NEVER use GDH-PQQ* glucose meters or test strips if you are using drug products or therapies that contain certain sugars other than glucose.

*GDH-PQQ stands for glucose dehydrogenase pyrroloquinoline quinoneIssue Diabetic patients who receive drug products or therapies containing certain sugars other than glucose could experience serious, although rare, injuries if they use blood glucose meters with a particular type of test-strip technology. Strips that use this technology, known as GDH-PQQ, will react with certain non-glucose sugars, including maltose, galactose and xylose, and produce a falsely high (elevated) result. If a diabetic patient then takes too much insulin because of this falsely high result, it could lead to abnormally low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), coma, or even death.

Certain patients may be more likely to be using drug products or therapies that contain other sugars, including those who:

• are on peritoneal dialysis
• have recently had surgery

Glucose test strips other than the GDH-PQQ type are not affected by this problem, and can be used by patients taking drug products or therapies that contain non-glucose sugars.

List of GDH-PQQ test strips and their associated meters List of GDH-PQQ Glucose Test Strips

Drug products or therapies with non-glucose sugars

• Extraneal (icodextrin) peritoneal dialysis solution
• Some immunoglobulins: Octagam 5%, Gamimune N 5% **, WinRho SDF Liquid, Vaccinia Immune Globulin Intravenous (Human) and HepaGamB
• Orencia (abatacept)
• Adept adhesion reduction solution (4% icodextrin)
• BEXXAR radioimmunotherapy agent
• Any product that contains, or the body breaks down into, the sugars maltose, galactose or xylose

** Within the U.S., Gamimune N 5% has not been manufactured since December 2005, and no lots are in distribution in the U.S.

Patient concerns If you are taking drug products or therapies that contain certain non-glucose sugars, such as maltose, galactose and xylose, these sugars will produce a falsely elevated glucose result if you are measuring your blood glucose using a GDH-PQQ test strip. If you then use this falsely elevated result to determine your dose of insulin, you could give yourself too much insulin, which could result in dangerously low blood glucose. In addition, if your blood glucose is actually low, it could go unrecognized and untreated because the test result could read higher than it actually is and appear to be within the normal range. In this case, you may not know your blood glucose is low unless you have certain symptoms, including confusion, hunger, nervousness, dizziness, irritability, sweating, heart pounding (palpitations), shaking, unusual fatigue or weakness, or tunnel or darkened vision. Low blood glucose must be recognized and treated promptly to avoid serious complications, such as coma and death.

Recommendations for diabetic patients using interfering drug products or therapies If you are a diabetic patient who uses any of the drug products or therapies that contain certain non-glucose sugars (or care for someone who does), you should:

• NEVER use GDH-PQQ glucose meters or test strips.
• Instead, use another type of glucose monitoring technology and continue to monitor your blood glucose as instructed by your healthcare provider.
• Contact your healthcare provider if your results do not reflect the way you feel.

You may be able to determine the type of glucose monitoring technology you are using by looking at the instructions that accompanied your meter or test strips, or at your meter's box. If you can't tell what kind of technology your meter and test strips use, ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist to help you find out, and/or contact the manufacturer of your meter and test strips.

General recommendations for all diabetic patients

• Continue testing your blood glucose as directed by your healthcare provider.
• Use only test strips specified for your glucose meter.
• Know the type of glucose monitoring technology you are using.
• Know that GDH-PQQ meters and strips should NOT be used if you are using an interfering drug product or therapy.
• Know that GDH-PQQ meters and strips are okay to use if you are NOT using an interfering drug product or therapy.
• Know the medications you are taking and keep a current list of your medications. If you do not have a current list of medications, ask your healthcare provider to provide you with a list.

Reports received by FDA From 1997 - 2009, FDA received 13 reports of death associated with GDH-PQQ glucose test strips in which there was interference from maltose or other non-glucose sugars. The deaths occurred in healthcare facilities. Some reports indicated that serious patient injury, such as low blood glucose (hypoglycemia), confusion, neurologic deterioration, too little oxygen in the tissues (severe hypoxia), brain damage and coma, occurred prior to death.

FDA is working with manufacturers to resolve the problems with GDH-PQQ glucose test strips, and is continuing to monitor adverse events associated with these products.

Questions to ask your healthcare provider

• How do I determine which glucose meter and strips I have?
• Which drugs am I currently taking? Am I taking or receiving an interfering drug product or therapy?
• Should I continue testing my blood glucose with my current meter and strips or should I get a new meter and strips? If so, how do I do this?

For more information see FDA Public Health Notification: Potentially Fatal Errors with GDH-PQQ Glucose Monitoring Technology.

Reporting adverse reactions Consumers may report adverse reactions related to glucose meters or glucose test strips to FDA's MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting Program online, by phone, FAX or mail.

• Online: MedWatch: The FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program
• Phone: 1-800-332-1088
• FAX: 1-800-FDA-0178
• Mail: use postage-paid FDA form 3500 mail to MedWatch, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20852-9787

List of GDH-PQQ Glucose Test Strips
The following test strips (with associated meters) use GDH-PQQ methodology as of August 2009:

Roche Diagnostics:
1. ACCU-CHEK Comfort Curve test strips, for use with:
• ACCU-CHEK Inform meters [model 2001201]
• ACCU-CHEK Complete meters [models 200 and 250]
• ACCU-CHEK Advantage meters [models 888, 831, 850, and 768]
• ACCU-CHEK Voicemate meters [model 0009221]

2. ACCU-CHEK Aviva test strips, for use with:

• ACCU-CHEK Aviva meters [models 525, 535, and 555]

3. ACCU-CHEK Compact test strips, for use with:

• ACCU-CHEK Compact meters [model GF]
• ACCU-CHEK Compact Plus meters [models GP and GT]

4. ACCU-CHEK Go test strips

• ACCU-CHEK Go meters [model GJ]

5. ACCU-CHEK Active test strips

• ACCU-CHEK Active meters [models GG and GN]

Abbott Diabetes Care:
1. Freestyle test strips, for use with:

• FreeStyle meters
• FreeStyle Flash meters
• FreeStyle Freedom meters

2. Freestyle Lite test strips, for use with:

• FreeStyle Lite meters
• FreeStyle Freedom Lite meters

Home Diagnostics:
1. TRUEtest test strips

• TRUEresult meters
• TRUE2go meters

Smiths Medical:
1. Abbott Diabetes Care Freestyle test strips, for use with:

• CoZmonitor blood glucose module (for use with the Deltec Cozmo Insulin Pump)

Insulet:
1. Abbott Diabetes Care Freestyle test strips, for use with:

• OmniPod Insulin Management System

Note: Test strips currently on the market may be distributed under multiple trade names. In addition, manufacturers of GDH-PQQ test strips currently on the market may subsequently change to non-GDH-PQQ methodology. Therefore, healthcare providers (and patients) should refer to device labeling or consult with test strip manufacturers to confirm the type of methodology used.

June 9, 2009 (EurekAlert) - Individuals with insomnia and objective short sleep duration are at increased risk for developing diabetes, according to a research abstract that will be presented on Tuesday, June 9, at SLEEP 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.Results indicate that compared with people who slept six hours or more while being monitored in the sleep laboratory, individuals with insomnia who slept for five or fewer hours had the highest risk of diabetes (odds ratio of 2.95); people with insomnia who slept for five to six hours also had an elevated risk of diabetes (odds ratio of 2.07).

The study gathered data from 1,741 men and women who were randomly selected from Central Pennsylvania; participants were studied in a sleep laboratory. Diabetes was defined based on either fasting blood sugar or treatment. Insomnia was defined by a complaint of insomnia with a duration of at least one year, while "poor sleep" was defined as a complaint of difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep or early final awakening. Polysomnographic sleep duration was classified into three categories: people who slept for six or more hours, those who slept five to six hours and those who slept for five hours or less. Logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios for diabetes.

According to lead author Alexandros Vgontzas, MD, endowed chair in Sleep Disorders Medicine at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, Pa., patients suffering from insomnia with short sleep duration are at a serious health risk.

"The more severe form of insomnia (insomnia with short objective sleep duration) is associated with a risk for diabetes that is similar to the elevated risk associated with obstructive sleep apnea," said Vgontzas.

Other studies also have found serious medical risks associated with insomnia and objective short sleep duration; another study led by Vgontzas that will be presented at SLEEP 2009 found that insomnia with objective short sleep duration is also associated with increased risk of mortality in men.

According to the study's authors, findings indicate that people with insomnia should seek evaluation and treatment from their medical provider. Although the results suggest that people with insomnia have a lower risk for physical problems if their sleep duration is normal, they still are at risk for depression and may suffer from the behavioral effects of insomnia.

June 6, 2009 (ADA) - A team of researchers sponsored by three major international diabetes organizations has definitively established that the GlycoMark® test (1,5-AG), a simple blood test used to measure glucose control in patients with diabetes, accurately reveals potentially dangerous fluctuations in blood sugar that are undetectable by other means.The findings support a need for a new paradigm that includes testing patients with the GlycoMark test for glucose variability in addition to the "hemoglobin A1C" test, which measures average glucose levels. A1C had long been considered the "gold standard" in determining whether patients' diabetes is under control.

The study confirms earlier data and establishes the GlycoMark test as the only blood test proven to detect glycemic variability and hyperglycemic episodes in moderately controlled patients who have Type 1or Type 2 diabetes mellitus-- which affect a total of more than 246 million adults and children worldwide.

The findings were announced on June 6, 2009, at the annual Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association (ADA).

"These results show that the GlycoMark test provides a much-needed tool to ensure that patients whose blood glucose levels appear to be well-controlled are not experiencing hypo- or hyper-glycemia-or blood sugar swings, especially after meals," said Eric Button, President of GlycoMark Inc., the New York/North Carolina company that has developed the test, and who is a member of the research team. "Chronic hyperglycemia in patients with diabetes has been associated with increased risk of vascular complications that can lead to stroke, heart attack, and blindness. Severe hypoglycemia can lead to hospitalization. Better testing of glucose control is expected to decrease such risks."

The widely-used hemoglobin AIC test measures average glucose levels over a two to three-month period. GlycoMark provides a much more sensitive measure of variation over a one to two-week period-thus indicating if blood glucose "peaks and valleys" that comprise the average are minimal or extreme and whether treatment changes are indicated.

The GlycoMark test was proven particularly effective in patients with A1C values of less than 8%-that is, those whose blood sugars were previously thought to be nearing or in control. Studies have found that as many as 40% of type 2 diabetes patients with A1C levels in the moderately controlled range are experiencing dangerous glucose swings and need medical intervention, Button said.

According to diabetes expert Irl Hirsch, Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine: "A1C is helpful in tracking broad glucose targets, but it only tells part of the story because it masks short term glycemic variability."

"I would become concerned if a patient has an A1C level that is within target, but a GlycoMark score that is abnormal; there may be a risk for life-threatening hypoglycemia and I can immediately explore where therapy changes need to occur. GlycoMark is a critical adjunct to A1C testing and presents a new paradigm for effective diabetes management."

The study was conducted as a follow on to the 2006-2008 international A1C- Derived Average Glucose (ADAG) study of more than 600 patients from ten research centers worldwide. ADAG is sponsored by the American Diabetes Association (ADA), International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD).

May 29, 2009 (EurekAlert) - Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) devices represent a critical step toward achieving automated glucose measurement, offering people with diabetes a promising new tool for maintaining optimal glucose control. A comprehensive review of this rapidly changing field, featuring the most recent research findings and critical analysis, is the focus of a special supplement of Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com). The supplement is available free online at www.liebertonline.com/dia"CGM is still in its infancy, yet this technology is already becoming the standard of care," writes Satish K. Garg, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics, and Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics from the University of Colorado Denver, in an editorial introducing the supplement. Over the past decade, "The annual healthcare costs related to diabetes care in the United States have increased significantly by 32%...to $174 billion," despite improvements in glucose control, Garg notes. Better methods are needed to prevent the long- and short-term complications associated with diabetes.

This in-depth supplement provides a detailed presentation of the need for better glucose monitoring techniques, describes state-of-the-art CGM technology, and looks to the future and the ultimate goal of integrating CGM with an artificial pancreas to simulate normal blood glucose control systems in the body. Several articles focus on the challenges that CGM must still overcome, whether technical, practical, or economic. In the editorial, "Do We Really Need Continuous Glucose Monitoring?" Anne Peters, MD, from the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine (Los Angeles), points out some of the drawbacks of current CGM technology: for example, the devices are "finicky and require care and calibration leading patients to use them infrequently"; "few physicians know how to interpret the data"; and "CGM devices have not been shown to reduce rates of severe hypoglycemia."

Associate Editor Jay S. Skyler, MD, from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine (Florida), reviews the history of CGM in an editorial entitled, "Continuous Glucose Monitoring: An Overview of Its Development." Eric Orzeck, MD, from Endocrinology Associates (Houston, TX), describes the need for better documentation, coding, and appeal procedures for use of CGM to improve insurance coverage, in the article, "Maximizing Reimbursement through Correct Coding Initiatives."

In the commentary entitled, "Continuous Glucose Monitoring: Understanding Our Current Culture," Irl Hirsch, MD, from the University of Washington School of Medicine (Seattle), concludes that CGM, "is only a tool to help patients make better decisions about insulin and food. Until we have a closed-loop system or islet cell transplant, human behavior will continue to dictate the success of a patient with his or her diabetes control."

May 29, 2009 (EurekAlert) - For years, doctors and other health-care providers have managed pregnant patients according to guidelines issued by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). In 1986, ACOG stated, "Regardless of how much women weigh before they become pregnant, gaining between 26-35 pounds during pregnancy can improve the outcome of pregnancy and reduce their chances of having the pregnancy end in fetal death." Until its revised guidelines were released yesterday, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) had recommended that overweight women should gain about 15 pounds during pregnancy.The current study was undertaken to test whether these guidelines make a difference in maternal-fetal outcomes among obese women. In the study, conducted at several hospitals, the researchers followed 232 obese pregnant women, all of whom had a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater. Half of the women followed conventional prenatal nutritional guidelines, which is essentially "eat to appetite" (control group). The other half were placed on a well-balanced, nutritionally monitored program, which included a daily food diary (study group). The average weight gain in the control group was 31 pounds, compared to 11 pounds in the study group. Twenty-three extremely obese patients lost weight during their pregnancy.

The findings showed that there were no fetal deaths and no growth-restricted infants in the study group. Also, there were fewer babies weighing more than 10 pounds in the study group than in the control group. (A birth weight over 10 pounds poses significant hazards to both infants and mothers.) Moreover, women in the study group gained less weight, had fewer cesarean deliveries, were less likely to develop gestational diabetes, and retained less weight after they delivered than women in the control group.

The researchers concluded that obese pregnant women may be placed on a healthy, well balanced, monitored nutritional program without adverse maternal-fetal outcomes.

"Women who are obese when beginning a pregnancy are, by definition, unhealthy," says study leader Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology and board-certified specialist in maternal-fetal medicine at New York Medical College. "To say that they should gain even more weight is counter-intuitive, and our study bears that out. Rather than focusing on numerical endpoints with respect to weight gain, we need to focus on making these women healthier by getting them to eat a well-balanced diet."

The study grew out of Dr. Thornton's personal experience with obesity and pregnancy. Despite being overweight, she gained a substantial amount of weight during her first pregnancy, exacerbating her life-long battle with obesity. During her second pregnancy, she followed a well-balanced diet and gained little weight, with no adverse consequences for mother or baby.

Dr. Thornton observed the same pattern in her own clinical practice, leading her to question prevailing guidelines for weight gain during pregnancy. Adding to her skepticism was the fact that women who develop gestational diabetes are routinely put on diets that effectively limit weight gain, with no ill effects.

"It is the mindset of our specialty, and our society, that we need to have round, chubby pregnant women in order make sure they are healthy," adds Dr. Thornton. "Pregnancy has become a license to eat. We talk about 'eating for two,' but it's really more like eating for 1 and 1/20th."

These attitudes have contributed to the obesity epidemic in the U.S., where 35 percent of women are considered obese, says the researcher. The situation is even worse among African-American women, four out of five of whom are overweight or obese.

"Gaining weight during pregnancy contributes to obesity, and it makes it that much harder for overweight women to return to their normal weight after pregnancy," says Dr. Thornton.

February 22, 2009 (EurekAlert) - Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council have harnessed a new drug discovery tool to identify a new player in the body's insulin secretion process. This finding could spark a completely new class of drugs to treat type 2 diabetes.In work published today (22 February) in Nature Chemical Biology researchers at the University of Oxford explain how they have exploited new technology to create a cheap and efficient method of drug discovery that will allow small academic labs to search a large database of drugs to find treatments for diabetes and many other diseases. They have used this new method to identify a small molecule which they are using to understand how insulin is secreted in response to increases in blood sugar.

Lead researcher Dr Grant Churchill said: "A lot of diseases are caused by problems with important proteins within cells. We need to find small molecules that change the function of these proteins both to discover how they work and in addition because these small molecules may also work as treatments for disease. The approach we have developed allows us to do this much more quickly and cheaply than many of the current methods. Ultimately this will speed up the process of getting better treatments into the clinic for patients."

Starting with a natural chemical and systematically modifying its chemical structure is a proven technique and common drugs such as beta-blockers and anti-histamines were discovered this way. However, these discoveries involved lengthy chemical syntheses starting with the natural chemical (adrenalin and histamine respectively).

"Our method also begins with the natural chemical but rather than modifying it with a time-consuming and expensive chemical syntheses conducted by a team of chemists, ours uses computers to identify corresponding small molecules for research and medicine. The major difference is that we have linked the computational methods commonly used by pharmaceutical companies to a freely available database of 5 million existing compounds - the ZINC database. This means we cut out a hugely time consuming and financially intensive part of the process, which is difficult for small academic labs to do," Churchill said.

The team has tested their method by successfully identifying a small molecule called Ned-19. This molecule was found after information about the natural chemical NAADP was entered into the computer system and cross referenced with the ZINC database. In collaboration with scientists at the University of Southampton, led by A.Ganesan, Ned-19 was prepared on a larger scale and separated. Further experiments were carried out with these compounds to confirm the activity of Ned-19. Using Ned-19 in experiments they have discovered that NAADP plays a crucial role in insulin secretion and therefore represents a brand new target for diabetes drugs.

Churchill continued: "Unfortunately, asking someone to take Ned-19 would actually give them diabetes! But now that we know how important NAADP is we can start to look for drugs that work with NAADP to increase insulin secretion rather than decrease it. In fact, we have colleagues who are already working on this using our tool."

Professor Douglas Kell, BBSRC Chief Executive said: "This is great news for our community of researchers and will provide a powerful tool for research in the future. This discovery about insulin secretion shows how important it is to have centrally held data repositories that are free to access. Such sharing of data and information can have really significant impact, right across the board."

February 21, 2009 (EurekAlert) - Drinking at least three cups of green or black tea a day can significantly reduce the risk of stroke, a new UCLA study has found. And the more you drink, the better your odds of staving off a stroke.The study results, published in the online edition of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, were presented Feb. 19 at the American Heart Association's annual International Stroke Conference in San Diego, Calif.

The UCLA researchers conducted an evidence-based review of all human observational studies on stroke and tea consumption found in the PubMed and Web of Science archives. They found nine studies describing 4,378 strokes among nearly 195,000 individuals, according to lead author Lenore Arab, a professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

"What we saw was that there was a consistency of effect of appreciable magnitude," said Arab, who is also a professor of biological chemistry. "By drinking three cups of tea a day, the risk of a stroke was reduced by 21 percent. It didn't matter if it was green or black tea."

And extrapolating from the data, the effect appears to be linear, Arab said. For instance, if one drinks three cups a day, the risk falls by 21 percent; follow that with another three cups and the risk drops another 21 percent.

This effect was found in tea made from the plant Camellia sinensis, not from herbal teas.

There are very few known ways to reduce the risk of stroke, Arab said. And developing medications for stroke victims is particularly challenging, given that the drug has to get to the stroke-damaged site quickly because damage occurs so fast. Arab said that by the time a stroke victim gets medical care, it's nearly too late to impede the damage.

"That's why these findings are so exciting," she said. "If we can find a way to prevent the stroke, or prevent the damage, that is simple and not toxic, that would be a great advance."

Though no one is certain which compounds in tea are responsible for this effect, researchers have speculated that the antioxidant epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) or the amino acid theanine may be what helps. Antioxidants are believed to help prevent coronary artery disease.

"And we do know that theanine is nearly 100-percent absorbed," Arab said. "It gets across the blood-brain barrier and it looks a lot like a molecule that's very similar to glutamate, and glutamate release is associated with stroke.

"It could be that theanine and glutamate compete for the glutamate receptor in the brain," she added.

Although a randomized clinical trial is needed to confirm this effect, the findings suggest that drinking three cups of green or black tea a day could help prevent an ischemic stroke.