In studies involving mice, the University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers determined that the drug verapamil — used to treat high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, and migraine headaches — essentially "eradicated" diabetes.

 

If follow-up studies confirm that it also works in people, it could herald the first "cure" for diabetes — an incurable metabolic disorder that affects 12 percent of American adults and costs the nation $245 billion each year, Medical News today reports. 
 

Lead researcher Anath Shalev, M.D., explained that previous UAB research has shown that high blood sugar causes an overproduction of a protein called TXNIP, which is increased within beta cells in response to Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

Too much TXNIP in pancreatic beta cells leads to their deaths, stopping the body's efforts to produce insulin and further promoting diabetes.
 

But the latest study found that verapamil lowers TXNIP levels in beta cells and, in mice with diabetes and high blood sugar levels, the drug eliminated the disease altogether.
 

"That is a proof-of-concept that, by lowering TXNIP, even in the context of the worst diabetes, we have beneficial effects. And all of this addresses the main underlying cause of the disease — beta cell loss,” said Dr. Shaley. “Our current approach attempts to target this loss by promoting the patient's own beta cell mass and insulin production. There is currently no treatment available that targets diabetes in this way."
 

The UAB researchers have received a 3-year, $2.1 million grant to conduct a clinical trial next year involving 52 people with Type 1 diabetes.
 

Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the US, raising risks for heart attack, blindness, kidney disease, and limb amputation.