The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : New treatment for diabetes likely

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 18, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

New treatment for diabetes likely

R. Sujatha

CHENNAI: A study of renal diseases led Dr. Giancarlo Viberti, an acknowledged a specialist in diabetic nephropathy, to conduct a study the results of which will be released this week at a meeting in Copenhagen. Dr. Viberti is a professor of diabetes in King's College, in London. During a recent visit to Chennai, he discussed proposals to start a new study with a few hundred patients at diabetes research centres in Gopalapuram and Royapuram.

Dr. Viberti heads two projects on the use of drugs to check the progress of diabetes in high risk patients.

The results are expected to pave the way for newer methods to treat diabetes.

He studied two well known drugs used to treat hypertension.

The doctor has many distinctions and awards to his name. The Wellcome Senior Research Fellowship in Clinical Science, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation Travel and Workshop Fellowship, Robert Campbell Oration and Medal - Ulster Medical Society, Camillo Golgi Lecture and Pedroli Prize - European Association for the Study of Diabetes, Valtis Memorial Lecture - Hellenic Society of Nephrology, Co-director British Council Course on Diabetes Mellitus and its Complications are some of the awards conferred upon him.

A study of renal diseases in Southall in England among South Asian and Caucasian populations inspired him, says Dr. Viberti. "I walked several kilometres to school. Cars were rare," he remembers. "Watching television is closely related to obesity," he says. "Television came to Italy only in 1954," and sedentary lifestyle was introduced. His research project, Diabetes Reduction Assessment with Ramipril and Rosiglitazone Medication (DREAM), addresses people with high risk of diabetes.

From about 20,000 who were screened for the study, 5,329 people who were at high risk of developing diabetes were enrolled. The result of the studywill be released at Copenhagen at the meeting of the European Association for the study.

"One of the features is waistline obesity. These drugs may be useful [to treat] cardiovascular and renal diseases, as they target the very defect these individuals have," he says. Rosiglitazone sensitises tissues in the body to the action of insulin, blocks production of glucose in the liver, and prevents the development of type 2 diabetes in people with impaired glucose tolerance or impaired fasting glucose.

Another study, ADOPT, enrolled 4,537 Caucasians. Those who had been diagnosed with diabetes within three years of the time they were selected for the project were chosen and advised diet and lifestyle modification. But they were not given any drugs. The study takes drug naive patients and compares the time to mono therapy failure and assessing beta cell function for three drugs .

The results of the test will be reported in South Africa at the International Diabetes Federation meeting in December.

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