7 ms·

Newly identified hormone may be a critical driver of type 1 and type 2 diabetes

180 points by rustoo 5y ago

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
a9h74j 5y ago
> When the researchers used an antibody to neutralize fabkin in mice, the animals did not develop diabetes. When the antibody was given to obese, diabetic mice, they reverted to a healthy state.
- Debug_Overload 5y ago
  This sounds awesome. For anyone with relevant expertise in the field: How significant is this? It seems pretty significant but we often hear about some amazing results from mice studies that turn out to not work in the real world.
  - taurath 5y ago
    I wonder myself whether the identification of this cluster of proteins could lead to other novel mechanisms we don’t know about, or whether the cluster is similar to others we know about? What’s the chances we find a lot more of them?
  - micro_cam 5y ago
    As a diabetic and former diabetes researcher, I’ve seen diabetes cured in mice a few times. It’s cool but too early to tell how significant. Stem cell treatment seems the most promising at the moment for a human cure.
pyaamb 5y ago
isn't diabetes an autoimmune thing?
- tryptophan 5y ago
  Type 1 is. Immune system kills the cells that produce insulin. Type II has unknown causes, but not auto-immune.
  - DougWebb 5y ago
    Type II is caused by chronic ingestion of excess carbohydrates, which leads to insulin resistance in those who are genetically susceptible to it. The mechanism is that the carbohydrates are broken down into glucose in your blood, which must be removed because high blood glucose for an extended period causes severe disease. Higher insulin levels drives glucose into your muscles until they can't take any more, your other cells until they can't take any more, your liver until it can't take any more, and then stored as body fat until your fat cells can't take any more. When everything is full, higher and higher levels of insulin are needed to stuff more and more glucose wherever it can be stuffed. That's Type II diabetes.
    - pyaamb 5y ago
      seems that type 2 might also have an autoimmune connection (paper linked in article) https://www.healthline.com/health/type-2-diabetes/is-type-2-diabetes-an-autoimmune-diease#what-it-means-for-treatment https://www.healthline.com/health/type-2-diabetes/is-type-2-...
      - cperciva 5y ago
        That's very weak. Obesity is linked to inflammation but that's about as far as the evidence goes so far.
    - Diab97216 5y ago
      This is in fact a commonly told story about how diabetes comes about. It matches with some of the science. But it's also clearly incomplete, as there are numerous cultures around the world that live on lots and lots of carbohydrates without developing diabetes, such as much of Asia eating mostly white rice, and hunter gatherer tribes that live off honey, and others.
karmicthreat 5y ago
So they essentially did fabkin knock out on the mice. I would expect that fabkin actually has a function. But maybe we can just intercept the issue farther up the chain to pull you out of a diabetes.
- _Microft 5y ago
  The interesting paragraph regarding that is half way down the article. Fabkin is a complex of already known proteins and seems to help cells communicate how much energy is available.
aaomidi 5y ago
HN when facing literally anything else that doesn't have a simple answer: oh wow so intriguing. So interesting. HN when facing anything related to people with diabetes type 2, or having issues with their weight: lol eat less. This is such a stupid fucking discourse because it prevents us from actually looking critically and seeing if there are causes beyond "lol u just eat a lot fatty" and treatments beyond "eat less lol". This view is also why diabetes type 2 is very undercovered with health insurance, compared to type 1. Doug, you are doing harm with this discourse that you are not a professional in, and you do not understand or can claim to understand all the complexity that goes into humans. You are doing active harm, and take this as a callout on stopping this behavior.
- sedivy94 5y ago
  Plenty of type II diabetics are thin. Fat mass is corollary but excess carb intake is causal. You’re conflating excess carbs and excess calories. One is a macronutrient and the other is a unit of energy. The answer is simple… like most things, it won’t map to every individual diabetic but it certainly maps to the population at large. The knee jerk reaction, feigning fat martyrdom, is what’s actually preventing us from looking critically at the causes behind type II diabetes. Our priors regarding what an acceptable human diet should look like have been shaped by a fifty+ year insurgence of processed food in the supply chain and marketing. American health is in dire straights and we refuse to look in the mirror.
  - aaomidi 5y ago
    Have you ever considered that the bodily want and need to consume more carbs might not be something that's just inherent in us and might be caused by external factors? Do you understand not everyone experiences hunger in the same way? Have you also considered the fact that carb heavy food is generally so much cheaper than when it's not? This is what I mean by its complex. Carb addiction is real and the solution isn't to make people feel like shit about it and actually help them overcome it and then study why the addiction is becoming more common place. We've added so much random crap to our bodies and food intake, and any number of them can interfere with our natural hunger and food-seeking process. So yeah, even if carbs are causal, telling people to eat less is not helpful. Thankfully, we are now getting medication that directly addresses this feeling of extreme hunger that a lot of obese people experience. The causes of those feelings is still being studied.

180 points by rustoo 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

> When the researchers used an antibody to neutralize fabkin in mice, the animals did not develop diabetes. When the antibody was given to obese, diabetic mice, they reverted to a healthy state.

Debug_Overload 5y ago
This sounds awesome. For anyone with relevant expertise in the field: How significant is this? It seems pretty significant but we often hear about some amazing results from mice studies that turn out to not work in the real world.
- taurath 5y ago
  I wonder myself whether the identification of this cluster of proteins could lead to other novel mechanisms we don’t know about, or whether the cluster is similar to others we know about? What’s the chances we find a lot more of them?
- micro_cam 5y ago
  As a diabetic and former diabetes researcher, I’ve seen diabetes cured in mice a few times. It’s cool but too early to tell how significant. Stem cell treatment seems the most promising at the moment for a human cure.

pyaamb 5y ago

isn't diabetes an autoimmune thing?

tryptophan 5y ago
Type 1 is. Immune system kills the cells that produce insulin. Type II has unknown causes, but not auto-immune.
- DougWebb 5y ago
  Type II is caused by chronic ingestion of excess carbohydrates, which leads to insulin resistance in those who are genetically susceptible to it. The mechanism is that the carbohydrates are broken down into glucose in your blood, which must be removed because high blood glucose for an extended period causes severe disease. Higher insulin levels drives glucose into your muscles until they can't take any more, your other cells until they can't take any more, your liver until it can't take any more, and then stored as body fat until your fat cells can't take any more. When everything is full, higher and higher levels of insulin are needed to stuff more and more glucose wherever it can be stuffed. That's Type II diabetes.
  - pyaamb 5y ago
    seems that type 2 might also have an autoimmune connection (paper linked in article) https://www.healthline.com/health/type-2-diabetes/is-type-2-diabetes-an-autoimmune-diease#what-it-means-for-treatment https://www.healthline.com/health/type-2-diabetes/is-type-2-...
    - cperciva 5y ago
      That's very weak. Obesity is linked to inflammation but that's about as far as the evidence goes so far.
  - Diab97216 5y ago
    This is in fact a commonly told story about how diabetes comes about. It matches with some of the science. But it's also clearly incomplete, as there are numerous cultures around the world that live on lots and lots of carbohydrates without developing diabetes, such as much of Asia eating mostly white rice, and hunter gatherer tribes that live off honey, and others.

karmicthreat 5y ago

So they essentially did fabkin knock out on the mice. I would expect that fabkin actually has a function. But maybe we can just intercept the issue farther up the chain to pull you out of a diabetes.

_Microft 5y ago
The interesting paragraph regarding that is half way down the article. Fabkin is a complex of already known proteins and seems to help cells communicate how much energy is available.

aaomidi 5y ago

HN when facing literally anything else that doesn't have a simple answer: oh wow so intriguing. So interesting. HN when facing anything related to people with diabetes type 2, or having issues with their weight: lol eat less. This is such a stupid fucking discourse because it prevents us from actually looking critically and seeing if there are causes beyond "lol u just eat a lot fatty" and treatments beyond "eat less lol". This view is also why diabetes type 2 is very undercovered with health insurance, compared to type 1. Doug, you are doing harm with this discourse that you are not a professional in, and you do not understand or can claim to understand all the complexity that goes into humans. You are doing active harm, and take this as a callout on stopping this behavior.

sedivy94 5y ago
Plenty of type II diabetics are thin. Fat mass is corollary but excess carb intake is causal. You’re conflating excess carbs and excess calories. One is a macronutrient and the other is a unit of energy. The answer is simple… like most things, it won’t map to every individual diabetic but it certainly maps to the population at large. The knee jerk reaction, feigning fat martyrdom, is what’s actually preventing us from looking critically at the causes behind type II diabetes. Our priors regarding what an acceptable human diet should look like have been shaped by a fifty+ year insurgence of processed food in the supply chain and marketing. American health is in dire straights and we refuse to look in the mirror.
- aaomidi 5y ago
  Have you ever considered that the bodily want and need to consume more carbs might not be something that's just inherent in us and might be caused by external factors? Do you understand not everyone experiences hunger in the same way? Have you also considered the fact that carb heavy food is generally so much cheaper than when it's not? This is what I mean by its complex. Carb addiction is real and the solution isn't to make people feel like shit about it and actually help them overcome it and then study why the addiction is becoming more common place. We've added so much random crap to our bodies and food intake, and any number of them can interfere with our natural hunger and food-seeking process. So yeah, even if carbs are causal, telling people to eat less is not helpful. Thankfully, we are now getting medication that directly addresses this feeling of extreme hunger that a lot of obese people experience. The causes of those feelings is still being studied.