Keywords
Citation
(2002), "Protein acts as "sensor" for insulin", Sensor Review, Vol. 22 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/sr.2002.08722cab.010
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2002, MCB UP Limited
Protein acts as "sensor" for insulin
Protein acts as "sensor" for insulin
Keyword: Biosensors
A Chiba research team near Tokyo has discovered a protein sensor molecule that it says is closely related to the secretion of insulin from the beta cells of the pancreas. This it claims is important in its implications for the development of new treatment for diabetes.
In the act of eating, the digestive tract releases large volumes of a certain hormone that promotes digestion, and when that occurs, one response is that cyclic AMP (cAMP), a type of messenger molecule that plays a key regulatory role in many types of cells, increases inside the beta cells of the pancreas.
The Chiba team discovered a type of sensor protein inside the beta cells that detects this increase in cAMP and responds by bonding to a known calcium ion sensor protein, insulin then being released from the beta cells. In animal experiments, the researchers engineered mice so their beta cells could not produce this cAMP sensor protein. Such mice produced less than half the normal amount of insulin. Experiments suggest that the secretion of insulin from the pancreas is suppressed when this protein is lacking, which points to a new potential treatment for diabetes.
Not all diabetics respond to the prevalent form of therapy of the moment, that which involves the use of medications that are designed around the mechanism by which glucose promotes the release of insulin from the beta cells of the pancreas, but the discovery of the cAMP sensor protein suggests an alternative strategy based on a different mechanism for treatment of diabetics who do not respond to conventional therapy.
According to a survey by the Japanese government's Health and Welfare Ministry, there are in excess of 6.8 million diabetics in the country, including one in ten people over the age of 40. Moreover, the rate of incidence is accelerating, so that the number of diabetics is likely to reach 10 million by the fiscal year of 2003-2004 in Japan.