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【drug-news】药物能阻止小鼠糖尿病和心脏疾病
Drug prevents diabetes, heart disease in mice
Julie Steenhuysen
reuters news agency
CHICAGO–An experimental drug prevented mice from developing diabetes and heart disease and might one day be used to stave off the diseases in humans, U.S. researchers said Wednesday.
The drug, which was developed by researchers at Harvard University in collaboration with Bristol-Meyers Squibb, blocked a protein needed to move fats around the body and made the mice resistant to the diseases.
The drug also reversed symptoms of diabetes and heart disease in mice that had them.
"It shoots two big birds with a single bullet," said Gokhan Hotamisligil, chair of the Harvard School of Public Health's Department of Genetics and Complex Diseases.
Mice given the drug became immune to diabetes, heart disease and other metabolic disorders even though they were severely obese or had high cholesterol and extremely high-fat diets.
Hotamisligil's work, published in the journal Nature, builds on his lab's prior discovery of a gene that is linked with diabetes and obesity in mice.
They found that mice who lacked the gene resisted those diseases.
"No matter what we did, we couldn't get them to develop diabetes," he said in a telephone interview. "They wouldn't develop heart disease. They couldn't get asthma. They were incredible."
He said the gene controls a lipid-binding protein called aP2 that sticks to fats in the blood and escorts them to different places in the body where they can cause trouble.
When people eat fatty foods, these aP2 proteins trigger a chain of inflammatory responses, he said. They can reduce sensitivity to the sugar-lowering effects of the hormone insulin – raising the risk of diabetes – and encourage plaque formation in arteries – raising the risk of heart attack.
Since the researchers could not genetically modify humans, they needed a chemical to do it for them.
"Then comes the question, 'Since we cannot change the genes of people, can we do this trick with a chemical?"' he asked.
Hotamisligil worked with Bristol-Myers Squibb researcher Dr. Rex Parker to make a drug that could block this protein.
They came up with BMS309403, a compound that mimics the act of genetically removing the aP2 gene.
Last year, Harvard researchers found a mutation of the same gene in some humans, who had a reduced risk of diabetes and heart attacks despite consuming a high-fat diet.
"We know this works exactly the same way in humans and we know this compound can do what genetics does. This is very encouraging," he said.
But there's a lot of work ahead for his lab and research partner Bristol-Myers, which jointly owns the compound with Harvard.
For one, they need to prove the chemical isn't toxic in humans. "That issue still needs to be tested. It is not going to be curing everything tomorrow," he said.
But if this or a similar compound proves to be safe and effective in humans, "then we would have a wonderful drug," he said. 本人已认领该文编译，48小时后若未提交译文，请其他战友自由认领。 CHICAGO–An experimental drug prevented mice from developing diabetes and heart disease and might one day be used to stave off the diseases in humans, U.S. researchers said Wednesday.
路透社芝加哥报道:美国研究人员周三声称，一种实验药物能阻止小鼠的糖尿病和心脏疾病，此药有一天可能会被用在人类身上。
The drug, which was developed by researchers at Harvard University in collaboration with Bristol-Meyers Squibb, blocked a protein needed to move fats around the body and made the mice resistant to the diseases.
该药由由哈佛大学的研究人员同Bristol-Meyers Squibb公司合作开发，能阻断在体内转运脂肪所需的一种蛋白质，使小鼠能够抵抗疾病 。
The drug also reversed symptoms of diabetes and heart disease in mice that had them.
该药还扭转了症状患糖尿病和心脏病小鼠的症状。
"It shoots two big birds with a single bullet," said Gokhan Hotamisligil, chair of the Harvard School of Public Health's Department of Genetics and Complex Diseases.
主管哈佛大学公共卫生学院的遗传学和疑难病系的Gokhan Hotamisligil说，“这真是一石二鸟的好事。”
Mice given the drug became immune to diabetes, heart disease and other metabolic disorders even though they were severely obese or had high cholesterol and extremely high-fat diets.
给药小鼠可对糖尿病,、心脏病及其他代谢紊乱疾病（即使有严重肥胖或高胆固醇和高脂肪的饮食习惯亦然）产生免疫。
Hotamisligil's work, published in the journal Nature, builds on his lab's prior discovery of a gene that is linked with diabetes and obesity in mice.
Hotamisligil的论文发表在自然杂志上，建立在他的实验室先前在小鼠中发现的一个与糖尿病和肥胖症有关基因的基础上。
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-03-27 11:48
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