BioCentury
ARTICLE | Targets & Mechanisms

Moving Upstream of Diabetes

May 29, 2008 7:00 AM UTC

There is a growing consensus in the medical community that early intervention is essential for treating diabetes.1 However, there are no approved treatments for metabolic syndrome, a complex set of conditions that often precedes diabetes. Now, two papers2,3 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences point to a trio of targets for treating obesity and insulin resistance, two key features of metabolic syndrome.

The studies suggest that targeting growth differentiation factor-3 (GDF-3) could reduce obesity, hitting activin B could boost insulin secretion and inhibiting the transforming growth factor-b receptor (TGF-b receptor) activin receptor-like kinase7 (ALK7) could do both-GDF-3 and activin B are both ALK7 ligands...