Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes, and is characterized by reduced responsiveness of body tissues to insulin, often combined with reduced insulin secretion.
As insulin transports glucose into the cell for use as energy and storage, diabetes compromises access to essential nutrients and results in hyperglycemia; excessive amounts of glucose circulating in the blood. Type 2 diabetes may go unnoticed for many years but can result in severe long-term complications such as cardiovascular malfunctions, neuropathy, renal failure and liver damage.
In the USA alone, type 2 diabetes is believed to affect 16 million patients, only 7 million of whom have been diagnosed. Worldwide, more than 150 million cases have been reported. Over recent years, type 2 diabetes has been on the rise and increasingly affects children and adolescents.
Etiology
In type 2 diabetes, insulin receptors in various tissues become insulin-resistant, causing glucose transport to be variable and ineffective.
The cause of type 2 diabetes is unknown, but several risk factors have been identified. Obesity (mainly around the waist) is known to predispose individuals and is reported in approximately 55% of patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Other considerable risk factors include aging, genetic predisposition (family history), lack of physical activity and hypertension.
Standard Care
When type 2 diabetes is diagnosed at an early stage, it is usually treated by increasing physical activity and long-term, if not lifelong, adherence to a diet.
If necessary, anti-diabetic drugs can be used to improve insulin production and even attenuate insulin resistance to some extent. Eventually, further impairment of insulin secretion in the pancreas may necessitate lifelong injection of exogenous insulin.
ActoGeniX’s Solution
ActoGeniX is developing new ActoBiotics™ which have been shown to reduce the symptoms of type 2 diabetes in preclinical models.