FOLLOWING the complete reversal of diabetes in mice using the blood pressure drug verapamil, come 2015, the University of Alabama at Birmingham will begin clinical trials in humans to determine if the same result is possible.

The trial, which will be made possible through a three-year, US$2.1-million grant from the JDRF, which, previously, was formally known as Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, is called “the repurposing of verapamil as a beta cell survival therapy in type 1 diabetes” and is the culmination of over a decade of work by UAB’s Comprehensive Diabetes Center.

According to the university’s website, the trial will enrol 52 people between 19 and 45 years old who have type 1 diabetes, within three months of this diagnosis. Through a randomised approach, they will be given verapamil or a placebo for one year while continuing with their insulin pump therapy. The website also said they will receive a continuous glucose-monitoring system that will enable them to measure their blood sugar 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“We have previously shown that verapamil can prevent diabetes and even reverse the disease in mouse models and reduce TXNIP in human islet beta cells, suggesting that it may have beneficial effects in humans as well,” Anath Shalev, MD, director of UAB’s Comprehensive Diabetes Center and principal investigator of the verapamil clinical trial is quoted as saying. “That is a proof-of-concept that, by lowering TXNIP, even in the context of the worst diabetes, we have beneficial effects. And all of this addresses the main underlying cause of the disease — beta cell loss. Our current approach attempts to target this loss by promoting the patient’s own beta cell mass and insulin production. There is currently no treatment available that targets diabetes in this way.”

TXNIP is a protein that high blood pressure causes the body to overproduce, which was also proven by UAB scientists following years of study. TXNIP increases within the beta cells in response to diabetes. Too much TXNIP in the pancreatic beta cells leads to their deaths and thwarts the body’s efforts to produce insulin, thereby contributing to the progression of diabetes, the website also said.

Through treating mouse models with established diabetes and blood sugars above 300 decilitre with verapamil, UAB scientists found that the drug which is used to treat high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat and migraine headaches can lower TXNIP levels in the beta cells to the point of eradicating the disease.

According to the Diabetes Association of Jamaica, over time, diabetes can lead to blindness, kidney failure, and nerve damage and is an important factor in speeding up the hardening and narrowing of the arteries, leading to strokes, coronary heart diseases and other blood vessel diseases.

November is recognised as Diabetes Awareness Month with this Friday, November 14, being recognised as World Diabetes Day.