oracle
02-17-2003, 05:15 AM
In study, drug blocks diabetes complications (http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-02-16-diabetes_x.htm)
By Anita Manning, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON -- A prescription medicine used in Germany to treat sciatica and other nerve problems may be a key to preventing blindness, limb loss and other devastating complications of diabetes, researchers report Monday in Nature Medicine.
The drug, benfotiamine, is a synthetic derivative of thiamine, or vitamin B1, says lead researcher Michael Brownlee of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In studies involving diabetic rats, it was found to enhance activity of an enzyme that stops high glucose from damaging blood vessels.
Thiamine has been known to give a 20% boost to the enzyme, but benfotiamine is more easily absorbed and therefore is "much more efficient," Brownlee says. Enzyme action increased 300% to 400% and was "completely unexpected," he says.
In the study, untreated rats developed diabetic retinopathy, destruction of the tiny vessels of the eye, in nine months. But eye tissue in the rats that had been given the drug was as healthy as non-diabetic rats. The drug "actually prevented the structural damage you see in the eye," Brownlee says.
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Click here to read more (http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-02-16-diabetes_x.htm)
By Anita Manning, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON -- A prescription medicine used in Germany to treat sciatica and other nerve problems may be a key to preventing blindness, limb loss and other devastating complications of diabetes, researchers report Monday in Nature Medicine.
The drug, benfotiamine, is a synthetic derivative of thiamine, or vitamin B1, says lead researcher Michael Brownlee of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In studies involving diabetic rats, it was found to enhance activity of an enzyme that stops high glucose from damaging blood vessels.
Thiamine has been known to give a 20% boost to the enzyme, but benfotiamine is more easily absorbed and therefore is "much more efficient," Brownlee says. Enzyme action increased 300% to 400% and was "completely unexpected," he says.
In the study, untreated rats developed diabetic retinopathy, destruction of the tiny vessels of the eye, in nine months. But eye tissue in the rats that had been given the drug was as healthy as non-diabetic rats. The drug "actually prevented the structural damage you see in the eye," Brownlee says.
...
Click here to read more (http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-02-16-diabetes_x.htm)