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Novel Diabetes Hope Comes From Chinese Herbs

Emodin, a natural product that can be extracted from various Chinese herbs including Rheum palmatum and Polygonum cuspidatum, shows promise as an agent that could reduce the impact of type 2 diabetes. Findings published in this months edition of the British Journal of Pharmacology show that giving emodin to mice with diet-induced obesity lowered blood glucose and serum insulin, improved insulin resistance and lead to more healthy levels of lipid in the blood. It also decreased body weight and reduced central fat mass. If repeated in humans, all of these changes would be beneficial for people affected by type 2 diabetes or other metabolic diseases associated with insulin resistance, says lead author Dr Ying Leng, who works in the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, China. Research is increasingly showing that an enzyme known as 11-HSD1 plays a role in the bodys response to sugar contained in a persons diet. When someone eats sugar-containing food a lot of glucose floods into the blood stream. In response, the body releases insulin and this hormone triggers various actions that help to clear excess glucose from the blood. The body, however, also has another set of hormones known as glucocorticoids, which have the opposite effect to insulin. And this is where 11-HSD1 fits in, because this enzyme increases glucocorticoids ability to act. The research revealed for the first time that emodin is a potent selective inhibitor of 11-HSD1, and as a result it effectively limits the effect of the glucocorticoids, and ameliorates diabetes and insulin resistance. Our work showed that this natural extract from Chinese herbs could point the way to a new way of helping people with type 2 diabetes as well as other metabolic disorders. To develop it further, researchers would need to develop chemicals that have similar effects as emodin, and see which if any of these could be used as a therapeutic drug, says Dr Leng.

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This study is published in the British Journal of Pharmacology. Media wishing to receive a PDF of this article may contact healthnews@wiley.com Full citation: Emodin, a natural product, selectively inhibits 11-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 and ameliorates metabolic disorder in diet-induced obese mice. Ying Feng, Su-ling Huang, Wei Dou, Song Zhang, Jun-hua Chen, Yu Shen, Jian-hua Shen, Ying Leng. British Journal of Pharmacology. 2010; 161: 113-126. DOI: DOI:10.1111/j.1476-5381.2010.00826.x About the Author: Ying Leng, Ph.D, is based at the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. About the Journal: The British Journal of Pharmacology is a broad-based journal giving leading international coverage of all aspects of pharmacology research. Its scope includes: molecular and cellular pharmacology, neuropharmacology, cardiovascular and pulmonary pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, drug metabolism, toxicology, gastrointestinal pharmacology, cancer pharmacology, inflammation and immunopharmacology, genitourinary and renal pharmacology, endocrine pharmacology, drug discovery, biopharmaceuticals and methods and techniques. BJPs 2009 Impact Factor is 5.204 (Thomson Reuters Science Citation Index). The British Journal of Pharmacology can be accessed at www.brjpharmacol.org About the British Pharmacological Society: The British Pharmacological Society (BPS) is the primary UK learned society concerned with research into drugs and the way they work. Our members work in academia, industry, and the health services, and many are medically qualified. The Society covers the whole spectrum of pharmacology, including laboratory, clinical, and toxicological aspects. BPS Press Office: T. 020 7239 0184 | M. 07899 921111 | E. jb@bps.ac.uk | W. www.bps.ac.uk About Wiley-Blackwell: Wiley-Blackwell is the international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, with strengths in every major academic and professional field and partnerships with many of the worlds leading societies. Wiley-Blackwell publishes nearly 1,500 peer-reviewed journals and 1,500+ new books annually in print and online, as well as databases, major reference works and laboratory protocols. For more information, please visit www.wileyblackwell.com or our new online platform, Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), one of the worlds most extensive multidisciplinary collections of online resources, covering life, health, social and physical sciences, and humanities.