Dantrolene could treat devastating form of diabetes

Posted on November 26, 2014 by DiabetesDigest.com Staff in News

Dantrolene, a muscle relaxant, may be an effective treatment for Wolfram syndrome, a rare but devastating form of diabetes.
What is Wolfram syndrome?
People with Wolfram syndrome typically develop type 1 diabetes when very young and require several insulin injections each day.
Symptoms of Wolfram syndrome include problems with eyesight, hearing loss and difficulty with balance. It affects one in 500,000 people worldwide, with many patients dying by the age of 40.
Dantrolene study
Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report that dantrolene, a commonly prescribed drug, could prevent insulin-producing beta cells being destroyed in animal models of Wolfram syndrome, as well as in cell models from patients with the illness.
Elevated levels of calpain 2, an enzyme, were found to be the main cause of death in brain cells and insulin-producing cells of people with Wolfram syndrome. However, when the researchers treated those cells with dantrolene, levels of the enzyme dropped and the cells stopped dying.
The researchers now hope that dantrolene could be effective against type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
“Wolfram is the most difficult form of diabetes because these patients have problems with blood sugar and so many other challenges,” said senior investigator Fumihiko Urano, MD, PhD, the Samuel E. …read more

Source:: News from Diabetes.co.uk

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