Tests done on animal models revealed that a formerly unknown molecule – interleukin-6 – plays a substantial role in fighting diabetes and obesity. Ironically, until now, researchers believed that this molecule caused the diseases, given the fact that it was discovered in chronically high quantities in all diabetes patients.
 

But researchers at the Vitagenes / University of Granada (UGR), working in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Melbourne and the Baker Heart Research Institute in Australia, took the risk of injecting a mouse with even more of the molecule, hoping to see what would happen. The results amazed everyone, when insulin and glucose absorption rates spiked through the roof and other genes, responsible for the metabolism of fatty acids, started working more "fervently."
 

Vitagenes' technical director, José Luis Mesa, the author of the new study, said "No study had tried to inject interleukin-6 directly to analyze if this molecule was really harmful or, to the contrary, could help to prevent obesity and diabetes. Our hypothesis was that interleukin-6 was naturally high in diabetic and obese persons precisely to combat such diseases."
 

The researchers are now pushing towards human testings, to see if their results could also be translated to humans. Needles to say, this could be a tremendous step forward in curing two very widespread diseases, namely diabetes and obesity. Higher fatty acid metabolism means that more fat is being burned for energy inside the body, which would severely reduce the fatty deposits that generate obesity.
 

More glucose and insulin in diabetes patients could provide them with an ever increasing quality of life. But the main goal of the researchers is to find the right drug "cocktail" to completely eradicate the disease. This could stave off complications, such as tuberculosis and diabetes combining to create disease hybrids that could become immune to conventional medications.