Mice With Mitochondrial Mutation Live Longer, Have Less Fat

If findings of a new study in mice are any indication, it might be possible to fine-tune cellular powerhouses called mitochondria, tweaking one aspect to increase insulin sensitivity, reduce body and fat mass, and even extend life. Exploiting this target could one day lead to novel treatments for type 2 diabetes - an endocrine system disease that affects 8 percent of the U.S. population. The research also points to promising new avenues of investigation in the biology of aging.
The study, reported in The FASEB Journalby authors from the School of Medicine at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio and the university's Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, found that diminished activity of a protein complex involved in mitochondrial function was associated with healthy changes in the mice. The median life span of this strain of mice is 20 percent longer.

Paradoxical
"This is an unexpected finding because you would think that something that decreases mitochondrial function would have a damaging effect, but instead we saw an increase in life span and beneficial metabolic effects," said lead author Deepa Sathyaseelan, Ph.D., research assistant professor of cellular and structural biology in the School of Medicine.
"The most important thing we noticed is reduced body weight and decreased fat mass in the mice," Dr. Sathyaseelan said. "We found that this decreased fat mass is due to increased fat utilization."
Fat utilization
Mitochondria produce an energy source called ATP that is necessary for the functions of life, everything from breathing to thinking. Additionally the cellular powerhouses are a major site of fat utilization, said study senior author Holly Van Remmen, Ph.D., professor of cellular and structural biology. Fat is an endocrine organ that performs many functions, and having it in the correct proportions is important for the body. Too much or too little fat is harmful.
The scientists also observed that mice with the mutation, in contrast to control animals, make greater numbers of new mitochondria. This is important because cells are constantly remodeling themselves, including mitochondrial overhaul.
Age-related
Mitochondrial dysfunction occurs with age and is associated with many age-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Dr. Sathyaseelan said the study "opens the door to new clues about how mitochondrial function might modulate insulin sensitivity," representing an important step for diabetes research.
Type 2 diabetes involves abnormalities with insulin, a hormone secreted by beta cells in the pancreas. Insulin helps the body store and use sugar from food, but in type 2 diabetes the body is insulin resistant, that is, it inefficiently responds to the hormone. With time the beta cells in diabetic patients start to die, resulting in less insulin to handle the demands. Levels of the hormone become progressively lower and sugar levels are increased progressively, damaging blood vessels and organs.
Understanding longevity
"I would also like to point out that these mice live longer," Dr. Van Remmen said. "For us they are very important from an aging standpoint. We want to understand how these animals can have added longevity, yet have a 60 percent reduction in a protein complex involved in mitochondrial function."
Dr. Sathyaseelan noted that life extension in association with decrease of the complex's activity is seen across species, including roundworms and flies. Shane Rea, Ph.D., assistant professor of physiology at the Barshop Institute, is one of the first to make this discovery in the worms.
The Barshop Institute team obtained the study mice from an Italian institute where studies are ongoing. Dr. Sathyaseelan recently received a two-year, $140,000 grant from the American Heart Association to understand how mitochondrial dysfunction is related to insulin sensitivity.

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Oraquick–The Next Step in Testing

What is OraQuick?

OraQuick^® is the first FDA-approved oral swab in-home test for HIV-1 and HIV-2. It's an oral swab test that doesn't require blood. It's completely private. And it's based on the same HIV test that healthcare professionals have used since 2004.

With OraQuick, you have the comfort of getting your test results in the privacy of your own home. It's the only at-home oral HIV test approved by the FDA.

Trusted

Adapted from a clinically proven, FDA-approved test. With over 20 million tests sold, healthcare professionals have used it since 2004.

Confidential

You can call our Support Center any time. Our trained customer service representatives are available 24/7 ready to answer your questions.

Private

You take the test in the privacy of your own home.

Fast

You get results in 20 minutes.

Oral

OraQuick is an oral test. You just swipe your gums. There's no blood involved.

The OraQuick Test Kit includes:

1. Step-by-step directions
2. An oral swab test stick and tube with solution
3. Information booklets on HIV and testing
4. Package Insert containing information about the test

How Oral Testing Works

Most people assume that blood is involved in HIV testing. But with OraQuick an oral swab is used for testing and requires no blood. By collecting oral fluid from your gums, you collect fluid similar to that used in blood testing.

So the OraQuick Test detects antibodies for HIV, not the virus itself.

You just gently swipe the test swab along your upper gums once and your lower gums once. Then you insert the swab inside the test tube provided and get your results in just 20 minutes.

Safe and approved by the FDA for use by adults (17 years of age or older), OraQuick is the first and only HIV test that delivers your results with all the comforts and privacy of home.

A Name You Can Trust

For two decades, OraSure Technologies has been a leader in the development, manufacture and distribution of oral diagnostic and collection devices.

OraSure products are sold around the world to clinical laboratories, hospitals, clinics, community-based organizations and other public and governmental health organizations and agencies. With our products, healthcare providers can deliver critical information to their patients, empowering them to make decisions that will help improve and protect their health.

Where to Buy

OraQuick is available for purchase here at OraQuick.com or at fine retailers near you. If you do not see your favorite retailer listed below, please contact the retailer directly for product purchase or store location information.

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Available only in the U.S. through OraQuick.com or at authorized national retailers.

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Adding dapagliflozin to sulfonylurea improved HbA1c in type 2 diabetes

Results of a phase 3 study presented at the International Diabetes Federation 2011 World Diabetes Congress in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, demonstrate that when added to sulfonylurea therapy, dapagliflozin reduced HbA1c at 24 weeks vs. placebo plus sulfonylurea in patients with type 2 diabetes. The reduction was maintained at 48 weeks, according to a press release.

Patients assigned to dapagliflozin (Bristol-Myers Squibb; AstraZeneca) plus glimepiride also experienced maintained reductions in fasting plasma glucose, postprandial glucose and total body weight.  

Results are from a 24-week extension trial of a 24-week, phase 3, multicenter, randomized, parallel-group, double blind, placebo-controlled study initially presented at the 46th European Association for the Study of Diabetes Annual Meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, in September 2010.

Patients with type 2 diabetes and HbA1c levels between 7% and 10% were randomly assigned to either dapagliflozin 2.5 mg (n=154), 5 mg (n=142) or 10 mg (n=151) per day or placebo (n=145) plus glimepiride 4 mg per day. At 24 weeks, the primary endpoint was mean change in HbA1c; the 24-week extension was conducted to assess the safety, efficacy and tolerability of dapagliflozin plus glimepiride during the 48-week period. The extension was completed by 519 patients.

After 48 weeks, mean improvements in HbA1c were -0.37% for the 2.5-mg arm (95% CI, -0.6 to -0.14); -0.53% for the 5-mg arm (95% CI, -0.75 to -0.3) and -0.7% for the 10-mg arm (95% CI, -0.92 to -0.47) compared with placebo. FPG, 2-hour postprandial glucose and body weight were also improved compared with placebo.

The rate of at least one adverse event was as follows: 58.4% for 2.5 mg, 60.7% for 5 mg and 58.9% for 10 mg vs. 55.5% for placebo.

Compared with placebo, hypoglycemic events were more frequent in the dapagliflozin groups (9.7% for 2.5 mg, 10.3% for 5 mg and 11.3% for 10 mg) compared with placebo (6.8%), although no patients discontinued treatment due to hypoglycemia.

According to a press release, events suggestive of genital infections were more common in patients assigned to dapagliflozin vs. placebo. Those events suggestive of urinary tract infections were similar in both groups.

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New Tool Saves Time, Reduces Risk of Mistakes in Diabetes Care

In the fast-paced world of health care, doctors are often pressed for time during patient visits. Researchers at the University of Missouri developed a tool that allows doctors to view electronic information about patients' health conditions related to diabetes on a single computer screen. A new study shows that this tool, the diabetes dashboard, saves time, improves accuracy and enhances patient care.

The diabetes dashboard provides information about patients' vital signs, health conditions, current medications, and laboratory tests that may need to be performed. The study showed that physicians who used the dashboard were able to correctly identify data they were searching for 100 percent of the time, compared with 94 percent using traditional electronic medical records. Further, the number of mouse clicks needed to find the information was reduced from 60 to three when using the diabetes dashboard.

Richelle Koopman, associate professor of family and community medicine in the School of Medicine, says diabetes care is complex because there are so many other health conditions associated with the disease; thus coordination of treatments is required. The goal of the diabetes dashboard is to make it easier for doctors to make the right decision about treatments.

"The diabetes dashboard is so intuitive that it makes it hard for physicians not to do the right thing," Koopman said. "Doctors can see, at a glance, everything that might affect their decision. This frees up their minds and helps them make better decisions about patients' care."

According to Koopman, the research has important implications for patient safety and costs. For example, the dashboard shows doctors a list of tests that are standard for diabetes patients and indicates whether patients have recently had the tests or need to have them. This eliminates the potential for physicians to order costly tests that are not necessary.

"It is difficult to quantify how much money the dashboard saves, but in terms of time and accuracy, the savings are substantial," Koopman said. "Doctors are still going to spend 15 minutes with each patient, but instead of using a large portion of that time to search through charts for information, they can have interactive conversations with patients about lifestyle and diet changes that are important for diabetes care."

The researchers say the dashboard was well received by doctors who tested it because it was designed by physicians familiar with their needs. The study, published in Annals of Family Medicine, was a collaboration among the MU School of Medicine, The Informatics Institute, the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies in the College of Education, the Center for Health Care Quality and the Sinclair School of Nursing.

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Hemoglobin A1c Testing Method Fails to Identify Kids With Diabetes, Study Shows

In 2009, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommended that Hemoglobin A1c be exclusively used for the diagnosis of diabetes in children. The simple test measures longer-term blood sugar levels -- without requiring patients to fast overnight. However, a new U-M study has shown that these tests are not very accurate in children.

"We found that Hemoglobin A1c is not as reliable a test for identifying children with diabetes or children at high risk for diabetes compared with other tests in children," says Joyce M. Lee, M.D., M.P.H., lead author of the study and a pediatric endocrinologist at U-M's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. "In fact, it failed to diagnose two out of three children participating in the study who truly did have diabetes."

A previous study released earlier this year, also by Lee, found that hemoglobin A1c is not as reliable a test for identifying children with diabetes and pre-diabetes compared with adults. Although tests that require patients to fast are the most accurate tests, they are difficult to obtain in clinical practice, highlighting the need for improved nonfasting testing strategies.

Due in part to high rates of childhood obesity, the Centers for Disease Control estimates that approximately 2.5 million children in the U.S. currently qualify for diabetes screening.

The study, published online ahead of print in the journal Diabetes Care, tested 254 overweight children using both fasting and non-fasting methods. Researchers found that the recommended test, Hemoglobin A1c, missed more cases of pre-diabetes or diabetes compared to other tests.

Participants in the study were defined as having prediabetes or diabetes based on a gold standard test. They were first tested using the Hemoglobin A1C test. After fasting for 12 hours, they returned on a separate day and were tested using a fasting method.

Based on the results, researchers urge that a nonfasting one-hour glucose challenge test, or a random glucose, may be promising methods for identifying children with pre-diabetes or diabetes.

"Other pediatric organizations, like the American Academy of Pediatrics, have not endorsed the use of HbA1c yet. However, there is concern that should they endorse it, more and more providers would use these testing methods, leading to an increase in missed diagnoses in the pediatric population," says Lee.

Researchers intend to use their data to drive future recommendations about screening for diabetes.

"We are currently studying whether the promising non-fasting tests, including the 1-hour glucose challenge test or the random glucose, could be used in combination with clinical characteristics to better identify which children have prediabetes or diabetes," says Lee.

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