Soon, there might be a cure for type 2 diabetes just by targeting a fat-tissue hormone, according to a new study.
Researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and colleagues described the pre-clinical development of a therapeutic that could potentially be used to treat type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and other metabolic diseases.
The researchers developed an antibody that improves glucose regulation and reduces fatty liver in obese mice by targeting a hormone in adipose (fat) tissue called aP2 (also known as FABP4).
The importance of this study is two-fold: first, demonstrating the importance of aP2 as a critical hormone in abnormal glucose metabolism, and secondly, showing that aP2 can be effectively targeted to treat diabetes and potentially other immunometabolic diseases, said researcher Gokhan S. Hotamisligil.
These monoclonal antibodies have the potential to be transformative first-in-class therapeutics to fight obesity-related metabolic and immunometabolic disease, say the authors. This work is still at the preclinical stage and will require extensive evaluation for safety and effectiveness before being considered for use in humans.
The study appears online in Science Translational Medicine.
