Circadian Clocks and Diabetes Linked by Molecule

In a ground breaking new investigation, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies managed to uncover an important connection between diabetes and circadian rhythms.

The group says that it performed a series of studies on mice, in which it was revealed that changing the concentration of a certain protein in their bodies made the diabetic animals experience a relief in their symptoms.

In other words, injecting the mice with a protein that plays a role in keep the biological clock of animals in check resulted in the small lab animals being cured of diabetes to varying extents.

The most important thing that this new research brings to the table is an entirely new biochemical approach, which scientists can now take in order to develop advanced therapies against the disease.

Additionally, fighting off obesity and type 2 diabetes may become easier too, the team writes in the September 19 advanced online issue of the esteemed scientific journal Nature Medicine.

“We know that mice that don't have good biological clocks tend to develop diabetes and obesity. And we know that mice that have developed diabetes and obesity tend not to have very good biological clocks,” says expert Steve Kay.

He was one of the lead authors on the new investigation. Kay also holds an appointment as the Dean of the Division of Biological Sciences, at the University of California in San Diego (UCSD).

“This reciprocal relationship between circadian rhythm and the maintenance of a constant supply of glucose in the body had been known for some time,” he goes on to say.

“But what we found that's so significant is that a particular biological clock protein, cryptochrome, is actually regulating how the hormone that regulates glucose production in the liver works in a very specific way,” the expert explains.

A tantalizing possibility brought for by the new research is that the increasing epidemic of diabetes that is sweeping the US and other developed nations may in fact be owed, among other things, to disturbances in our sleep-wake cycles.

The variations occur because we lead increasingly complex lives, which require us to stay up around the clock, and to disregard the natural impulses the circadian clock is sending to our bodies.

“We used to think that our metabolism was regulated primarily by hormones that are released from the pancreas during fasting or feeding. This work shows that the biological clock determines how well these hormones work to regulate metabolism,” scientist Marc Montminy says.

“The study may explain why shift workers, whose biological clocks are often out of kilter, also have a greater risk of developing obesity and insulin resistance,” adds the expert, who is a professor in the Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

The new research effort was funded by grants from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).