Sulphonylureas, among other drugs for type 2 diabetes, have been a key treatment for the disease since their introduction in the early 1950s. However, although they remain one of the most common prescribed drugs for the condition, they may lose efficacy over time and can cause more side effects than other anti-diabetic drugs.
A study led by the University of Barcelona, the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Bellvitge University Hospital and the CIBER Area for Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Diseases (CIBERDEM) confirms that drugs in the sulphonylurea family can cause a loss of identity of insulin-producing cells, reducing their ability to secrete insulin and potentially accelerating the progression of type 2 diabetes.
The study, published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism , is led by Professor Eduard Montanya, from the UB's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, who leads the Diabetes, Nutrition and Endocrine Diseases group at IDIBELL, and is also a doctor at the Bellvitge Hospital and a member of CIBERDEM.
The gears of diabetes
Diabetes is a chronic condition caused by an abnormal increase in blood glucose (hyperglycaemia). This complex disease involves insulin, the hormone that regulates blood glucose levels, and the pancreatic beta (β) cells, which are responsible for producing insulin.
Type 2 diabetes is characterized by insulin resistance and a progressive loss of β-cell function to cope with it. Both β-cell death and loss of β-cell identity play an important role in these alterations, a process known in animal models and now corroborated in humans by the researchers. "Not only do β cells die, but they also lose their functional identity and, although they are still alive, they revert to a state in which they are unable to produce and secrete insulin effectively, and it seems that sulphonylureas contribute to this loss of cell identity, increasing and enhancing their loss of function," says Eduard Montanya.
