Thiazolidinediones, or glitazones, are drugs commonly prescribed to patients with type 2 diabetes.
Current FDA ( Food and Drug Administration )-approved agents are known as Pioglitazone ( Actos ) and Rosiglitazone ( Avandia ).
These oral agents improve blood glucose levels in people with diabetes by improving insulin action in the body. While it is known that these drugs work primarily by binding to a receptor in the nucleus of cells called Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptor-gamma ( PPARg ), all of the molecular signaling events important for the drugs to work are not completely understood.

A study by researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston helps to explain how these drugs work.

The study is published in the American Diabetes Association's journal Diabetes.

In a clinical research study, Joslin researchers Allison B. Goldfine, Sarah Crunkhorn, and Mary-Elizabeth Patti, examined muscle and fat tissue from patients with type 2 diabetes before and after they took the drug Rosiglitazone.

The researchers found that levels of two proteins called Necdin and E2F4, which are important in regulating cell replication, are altered in muscle and fat after patients took the drug for two months.
" Because the proteins are important in regulating the cell cycle, the findings suggest that the thiazolidinediones may work, in part, by altering the cell differentiation state, or level of cell maturity. Additionally, the two proteins Necdin and E2F4 may represent new drug targets that may be useful in the future for treatment of patients with diabetes," says Goldfine.

Source: Joslin Diabetes Center, 2006


XagenaMedicine2006