Skip to main content

Humanin fights Alzheimer's and insulin insensitivity

Cellular Protein Yields Clues to Diabetes, Alzheimer's
Animal tests suggest humanin could have therapeutic benefits : HealthDay

WEDNESDAY, July 22 (HealthDay News) -- New information about a cellular protein might help in efforts to develop drug treatments for diabetes and Alzheimer's disease, researchers say.

In tests on rats, they found that humanin, which may prevent nerve cells from dying, also helps improve insulin action and lower blood glucose levels.

"This new role of humanin in glucose metabolism, in addition to its role in Alzheimer's disease, is very intriguing since scientists have long proposed a link between type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's disease," Dr. Nir Barzilai, a professor and director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, said in a news release from the college.

"Humanin could turn out to be a therapeutic option for two common debilitating diseases that affect millions of people, Barzilai said. "Additionally, humanin may help treat other age-related diseases."

Of course they want to make a drug to mimic humanin. I'm more curious as to the link between insulin resistance and Alzheimer's. This study links the two, but does one cause the other, or does a third factor cause both? If humanin is protective, how can we naturally increase the supply of it in our bodies?
Labels:

Comments

paulcmurray said…
Here is that third factor that you speculate. This article may turn diabetes and AD research upside down?

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/158628.php

paulcmurray@yahoo.com
8/01/2009 8:42 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Could Narcolepsy be caused by gluten? :: Kitchen Table Hypothesis

Kitchen Table Hypothesis from www.zombieinstitute.net - Heidi's new site It's commonly known that a severe allergy to peanuts can cause death within minutes. What if there were an allergy that were delayed for hours and caused people to fall asleep instead? That is what I believe is happening in people with Narcolepsy. Celiac disease is an allergy to gliadin, a specific gluten protein found in grains such as wheat, barley and rye. In celiac disease the IgA antigliadin antibody is produced after ingestion of gluten. It attacks the gluten, but also mistakenly binds to and creates an immune reaction in the cells of the small intestine causing severe damage. There is another form of gluten intolerance, Dermatitis Herpetiformis, in which the IgA antigliadin bind to proteins in the skin, causing blisters, itching and pain. This can occur without any signs of intestinal damage. Non-celiac gluten sensitivity is a similar autoimmune reaction to gliadin, however it usually involves the...
19 comments
Read more

Insulin Resistance- cause of ADD, diabetes, narcolepsy, etc etc

Insulin Resistance Insulin Resistance Have you been diagnosed with clinical depression? Heart disease? Type II, or adult, diabetes? Narcolepsy? Are you, or do you think you might be, an alcoholic? Do you gain weight around your middle in spite of faithfully dieting? Are you unable to lose weight? Does your child have ADHD? If you have any one of these symptoms, I wrote this article for you. Believe it or not, the same thing can cause all of the above symptoms. I am not a medical professional. I am not a nutritionist. The conclusions I have drawn from my own experience and observations are not rocket science. A diagnosis of clinical depression is as ordinary as the common cold today. Prescriptions for Prozac, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, etc., are written every day. Genuine clinical depression is a very serious condition caused by serotonin levels in the brain. I am not certain, however, that every diagnosis of depression is the real thing. My guess is that about 10 percent of the people taking ...
5 comments
Read more

BBC NEWS | Technology | The ethical dilemmas of robotics

BBC NEWS | Technology | The ethical dilemmas of robotics If robots can feel pain, should they be granted certain rights? If robots develop emotions, as some experts think they will, should they be allowed to marry humans? Should they be allowed to own property? These questions might sound far-fetched, but debates over animal rights would have seemed equally far-fetched to many people just a few decades ago. Now, however, such questions are part of mainstream public debate. And the technology is progressing so fast that it is probably wise to start addressing the issues now. One area of robotics that raises some difficult ethical questions, and which is already developing rapidly, is the field of emotional robotics. More pressing moral questions are already being raised by the increasing use of robots in the military This is the attempt to endow robots with the ability to recognise human expressions of emotion, and to engage in behaviour that humans readily perceive as emotional. Huma...
Post a Comment
Read more