Archives of The Cold Blooded News

The Newsletter of the Colorado Herpetological Society

Volume 31, Number 2;   February, 2004

Man-Made Form of Lizard Hormone Controls Blood Sugar, Hunger

Clinical Trials Hold Promise for Diabetics

by Anita Manning

An experimental drug called Exenatide appears to reduce blood sugar levels when they're too high, but is not active when levels are normal, lowering the risk of dangerous plunges in blood sugar called hypoglycemia, says Joseph Cook Jr. His firm, Amylin, a small San Diego biopharmaceutical company, is developing Exenatide with Eli Lilly and Company. Unlike GLP-1, Cook says the synthetic hormone does not break down quickly in the body.

Amylin researchers presented results of a clinical trial involving 63 diabetic patients who were unable to keep their blood sugar levels in the safe range, despite drug therapy. Injections with the synthetic hormone twice a day brought sugar levels down significantly without causing weight gain. In fact, patients dropped about five pounds in five months. No severe hypoglycemia was reported, the worst side effect was nausea, which went away with continued treatment.

Results from further studies involving 1,600 patients will be reported later this year. The company expects to seek approval of its drug from the Food and Drug Administration in 2004.

Exenatide is the furthest along of several potential new drugs resulting from increased knowledge of digestive tract, or "gut" hormones, says Richard Kahn of the diabetes association. "These dozens of hormones meticulously control body weight and other metabolic functions," he says. Obesity is a risk factor for type 2, the most common form of diabetes.

People with diabetes - whether type 1, which is caused by destruction of the body's insulin-producing cells, or type 2, caused by an inability to use insulin effectively - have too much glucose, or sugar, in their blood. This can damage blood vessels, leading to kidney and heart disease, blindness or amputations. Methods to lower glucose include insulin injections or drugs that boost insulin production or sensitivity. But insulin causes weight gain, and current medica.tions may become less effective over time. Nearly every major drug company is now looking at gut hormones or the enzymes that influence them.