For around a decade, the Comprehensive Diabetes Center of the University of Alabama at Birmingham has been working on not only understanding the disease but also learning how to stop it. During this course of study, they discovered that a common drug prescribed for high blood pressure may be the ultimate cure, according to a recent story on WebMD.
WebMD reports that this drug is called Verapamil, an oral medication with no reported severe side effects. It has been around for more than 25 years. They learned that aside from lowering blood pressure, it also has the ability to lower the production of TXNIP, a type of protein that plays a huge role in type 1 diabetes. Based on their research, TXNIP correlates to a high level of blood sugar (glucose). In other words, when the glucose is high, the body produces more TXNIP. This protein, on the other hand, damages the beta cells of the pancreas, leading to and worsening diabetes.
WebMD reported the lab has been testing the effects of Verapamil on lab mice, giving them more than 300 mg/dL regularly, which, according to the researchers, eventually reversed diabetes of these animals.
Now that they have proven the success and effectiveness of the drug on lab mice, and with the help of Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation that gave the team over $ 2 million grant, they are ready to move forward with a clinical human trial, which is expected to start early 2015.
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