Soon, new drug may help cure type 2 Diabetes at source

A Rutgers researcher is developing a new drug that might help in battling against the type 2 diabetes, which would attack the root cause of the disease.

New research shows promising evidence that a modified form of a different drug, niclosamide, now used to eliminate intestinal parasites, might hold the key to battling the disease at its source.

Victor Shengkan Jin said it was important to find a suitable medication to correct the cause of the disease as quickly as possible because the only way now known to "cure" the condition involves major gastric bypass surgery.

The modified medication, whose full name is niclosamide ethanolamine salt (NEN), burned the excess fat in liver cells through a process known as mitochondrial uncoupling. Mitochondria are the microscopic energy source for each cell in the body, and ordinarily, like a well-tuned car engine, they burn fuels including fats and sugars in modest quantities to keep the cells functioning.

Jin also mentioned that it was significant that the drug he used was a modified form of a medication that the FDA already approved for human use, so it was a deliberate choice.

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