Contact:  Caitlin Jenney, (303) 724-1520, caitlin.jenney@uchsc.edu

UCDHSC Researcher Pinpoints Possible Cause of Type 2 Diabetes
New theory introduced for therapy

AURORA, Colo. (September 10, 2007) – The findings of an University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center endocrinologist were published in the September issue of Metabolic Syndrome and Related Diseases, revealing a possible cause of type 2 diabetes and suggesting that heat shock proteins could be the key to understanding, treating and ultimately preventing the disease.

Philip Hooper, MD, lead investigator of the study at UCDHSC, believes that the epidemic of type 2 diabetes in the 21st century can be attributed to the loss of conditioning of the body to stress.

“Specifically, as we age, overeat and are sedentary, we become deconditioned and lose our cellular stress proteins. This in turn sets up loss of insulin action as well as loss of pancreatic cells that release insulin, resulting in type 2 diabetes and a situation of tissues vulnerable to life’s stresses,” said Hooper. “With loss of insulin action, our cellular defense system -- stress proteins -- breaks down, leading to inflammation, loss of insulin action and again loss of stress proteins -- a vicious cycle.”

 In support of the theory, it has been shown that improving the action of insulin with medications, exercise or dieting will raise stress proteins, reduce inflammation and improve insulin action. Stress proteins, essential for life and found in all living things, are also known as heat shock proteins. The best way to explain heat shock proteins is by studying heat shock. Hooper began to study stress proteins or heat shock proteins after he observed that when patients with type 2 diabetes were immersed in a hot tub six days a week for three weeks, their glucose levels fell substantially and their diabetic neuropathy improved.

Heat at a tissue level raises the stress proteins that protect cells from damage. The low stress protein condition of a person with diabetes results in vulnerability to stress. The person with diabetes who is in an auto accident has a several-fold increase in mortality, and spends many more days in intensive care than the person without diabetes.

The discovery is already leading to new drug development. Recently, researchers have been excited by a group of drugs called GSK-3 inhibitors that raise the stress proteins and thereby improve insulin action, slow progression of neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and ALS and increase the capacity of the body to handle potentially lethal heart attacks, strokes and sepsis. Hooper’s observations may explain why these drugs work so well in so many conditions.

Dr. Hooper hopes that his observations will provide a fundamental understanding of type 2 diabetes.

 “Next steps include testing of GSK-3 inhibitory drugs in patients with type 2 diabetes and exploring how the insights from this work relate to other progressive diseases, including aging,” said Hooper.

The University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center is one of three universities in the University of Colorado System. Located in Denver, on the Auraria Campus, at Ninth & Colorado Blvd. and on the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colo., UCDHSC is Colorado’s premier research university offering more than 100 degrees and programs in 12 schools and colleges and serving more than 28,000 students in Metro Denver and online. For more information, visit the Web site at www.ucdhsc.edu or the UCDHSC Newsroom at http://www.uchsc.edu/news.

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