WEDNESDAY, April 11, 2007 (HealthDay News) -- A drug designed to treat juvenile rheumatoid arthritis may also be helpful for managing type 2 diabetes, new research suggests.
The study found that daily injections of anakinra led to a drop in long-term levels of glucose in the blood, while they increased in people given a placebo.
"We (showed) that a 13-week treatment with anakinra improves glucose regulation and insulin production in people with type 2 diabetes," said one of the study's authors, Dr. Marc Donath, an attending physician and a professor of endocrinology and diabetes at University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland.
The study is published in the April 12 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Almost 21 million Americans -- or about 7 percent of the U.S. population -- have diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of the disease, and those most at risk for developing type 2 diabetes include people who are overweight, the elderly, and people from certain races, such as blacks or Native Americans, according to the diabetes group.
Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body doesn't produce enough insulin, or it doesn't use insulin effectively. Insulin, a hormone, is needed to transport sugar from the blood to cells, where it is used for energy.
Sometimes, beta cells -- insulin-producing cells -- in the pancreas are destroyed in type 2 diabetes as they are in type 1 diabetes. Through previous research, Donath and his colleagues learned that a substance called interleukin-1 beta was a factor in the demise of these cells in people with type 2 diabetes.
The drug anakinra is an interleukin-1-receptor antagonist, which means it can block the action of interleukin-1 beta.
To assess whether or not this could have an effect on people with type 2 diabetes, the researchers randomly assigned 36 people to receive a once-daily placebo injection and 34 people to receive once-daily injections of 100 milligrams of anakinra for 13 weeks.
After 13 weeks, the glycated hemoglobin levels were 0.46 percent lower in the group that received anakinra. Glycated hemoglobin, also referred to as glycosylated hemoglobin or A1C, is a test that measures the average amount of glucose in the blood for about three months. People without diabetes generally have levels around 5 percent. The higher the level, the greater the risk of diabetes complications, which can include heart disease, nerve damage, kidney failure and loss of vision.
"Our study is proof of concept for a mechanism underlying the disease and (may possibly) block its progression," said Donath, who added, "Interleukin-1 beta may be involved in other complications of the disease, such as arteriosclerosis. Therefore, this therapy may also prevent cardiovascular events. However, this remains to be shown."
Anakinra was well tolerated by the study participants, and Donath and his colleagues plan on conducting larger, follow-up studies of the medication.
"This study points to inflammation as definitely having a role in the (diabetes) story," said Dr. Stuart Weiss, an endocrinologist at New York University Medical Center, and a clinical assistant professor of medicine at the New York University School of Medicine.
But, Weiss said that while this avenue of research is "worth pursuing, I wouldn't get my hopes up for a clinical application, especially since the drug appears to lose its effectiveness over time."
Additionally, Weiss pointed out that it appeared the drug was more effective in thinner people. "The authors don't really discuss this, but it's an interesting finding -- it's not what we'd expect."
More information
To learn more about type 2 diabetes, visit the National Library of Medicine.
