Diabetes
Diabetes mellitus affects over 20 million people in the United States. The number of diabetes patients is increasing by 5 percent per year and one in three Americans born in 2000 will likely develop diabetes in their lifetime. The annual cost of diabetes in medical expenditures and lost productivity climbed from $98 billion in 1997 to $132 billion in 2002 and the direct medical costs of diabetes more than doubled in that time, from $44 billion in 1997 to $91.8 billion in 2002 (www.diabetes.org). While no accurate figures are yet available, the projected annual cost of diabetes in 2006 is more than $150 billion.
PNR&D Investigators are committed to developing treatments for the complications of diabetes that affect the eyes, kidneys, heart and particularly, the nerves. Almost every person with diabetes will experience at least one of these complications during his or her lifetime. However, despite their high prevalence, there are no treatments for diabetic complications and little is known about how and why they occur.
Our goal is to maintain the health of diabetic patients throughout the course of their disease. Therefore, to better understand diabetic complications, PNR&D investigators conduct research from basic cell biology to new drug development. The clinical course of diabetes increases blood glucose. It is believed that the cause of complications is probably excess glucose. Consequently, investigators within the PNR&D are exploring the effects of excess glucose to obtain a more complete picture of diabetic complications.
PNR&D researchers are investigating the possible link between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and diabetes using cellular and animal models. We found that tau, one of the key proteins involved in AD pathology, is abnormally regulated in diabetic animals. We are trying to develop new animal models to study the mechanisms underlying the interaction of these two highly pandemic diseases. Successful completion of our studies will give a fundamental basis for drug development and lifestyle modifications aimed at treating and/or preventing diabetes and AD.
