Taiwanese researchers have identified a gene that they say might help doctors treat diabetes.
A study by a research team at Academia Sinica’s Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center showed that the expression of protein disulfide isomerase family A member 4 (PDIA4) is linked to diabetes.
The research was published in this month’s issue of EMBO Molecular Medicine, an open-source, peer-reviewed scientific journal based in Europe.
Photo courtesy of Yang Wen-chin
When people — or mice, which also carry PDIA4 — are overnourished, expression of the protein-coding gene increases in the beta cells of the pancreas, the study said.
This triggers a process that leads to metabolic stress and eventual death of the pancreatic cells that secrete insulin, resulting in diabetes, it said.
Removing the gene from diabetic mice alleviates their condition in a number of ways, including lessening the destruction of pancreatic cells, lowering blood sugar levels and increasing insulin secretion, it said.
Eliminating the gene can sometimes fully reverse diabetes in mice, which might occur without intervention or in combination with a reduced diet, the study said.
In addition, the scientists created a PDIA4 inhibitor they call PS1 that suppresses the progression of diabetes in mice, it said.
These findings show that the PDIA4 gene could be the key in the search for a cure for diabetes, it said.
Lead researcher Yang Wen-chin (楊文欽), a research fellow at the center, on Thursday said that the gene has the potential to become the first-ever therapeutic treatment for diabetes, should it pass clinical trials.
Ministry of Health and Welfare data show that 9.8 percent of Taiwanese have diabetes, while the National Health Insurance pays NT$30 billion (US$1.08 billion) annually in medical expenses related to the condition.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not