S. Vishnu Sharma
IIT Mandi researchers have shown that drug used to treat opioid addiction can also potentially reverse some of adverse events related to type 2 diabetes.
This work taken up by IIT Mandi researchers got funding from Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), the result of this work has been published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
IIT Mandi researchers show great drug can reverse type 2 diabetes
The paper has been authored by the lead scientist on this research Dr. Prosenjit Mondal, Associate Professor, School of Basic Sciences, IIT Mandi and Co-investigators on the study were research scholars, Mr. Abhinav Choubey, Ms.Khyati Girdhar of IIT Mandi along with Dr. Debabrata Ghosh, Mr. Aditya K. Kar and Mr. Shaivya Kushwaha of CSIR-IITR, Lucknow and Dr. Manoj Kumar Yadav of SRM University, Delhi-NCR, Sonipat, Haryana.
IIT Mandi researchers said Insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas, is used by cells to absorb glucose from the blood.
IIT Mandi researchers further said Type-2 Diabetes is caused when cells lose their ability to use insulin due to a variety of reasons.
Insulin resistance is intricately linked to a condition called hyperinsulinemia, in which there is excess insulin traversing the bloodstream.
The relationship between insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia is cyclic – each increases the occurrence of the other.
While it is obvious how insulin resistance leads to hyperinsulinemia – when cells cannot use the insulin, it just remains in the blood – the converse of how hyperinsulinemia increases insulin resistance has hitherto remained unclear.
One of IIT Mandi researchers Dr. Mondal said they have known that one of the causes of insulin resistance is inflammation.
‘We wanted to find out if and how hyperinsulinemia invokes inflammation in the body, which would provide the link between the two conditions.’
IIT Mandi researchers have identified a critical protein molecule – SIRT1 which is repressed in hyperinsulinemia.
They discovered that a decrease in SIRT1 activates another protein called NFkB, which instigates inflammation, thus providing the link between hyperinsulinemia and systemic inflammation.
IIT Mandi researchers have also found a solution to this problem.
IIT Mandi researchers found that low-dose naltrexone (LDN), a drug commonly administered for opiate addiction, can activate SIRT1, thereby reducing inflammation and increasing insulin sensitivity of cells.
The significance of this discovery is enormous, say IIT Mandi researchers.
‘Naltrexone at low doses could potentially restore some of the diabetes-associated events in cellular and animal models,’ says Dr. Mondal.
Dr. Mondal is confident that this is a viable path to follow for Type-2 diabetes management.
‘Naltrexone is already an FDA-approved drug that is used for the treatment of opioid addiction and can easily be repurposed for inflammation reduction and diabetes control,’ says Dr. Mondal who is one of IIT Mandi researchers.
IIT Mandi researchers intend to study this thread further, to understand the mechanistic aspects of LDN’s effects on hyperinsulinemia-induced inflammation and resulting insulin resistance.
The study by the IIT Mandi researchers and its collaborators is timely given the urgent need to understand and address the issue of diabetes in India.
India is the diabetes capital of the world,’ says Dr. Mondal one of the IIT Mandi researchers.
He said that one of every six diabetics in the world is Indian.
‘It is important to understand the various causative factors for diabetes to find cures and management strategies,’ says Dr. Mondal whose work seeks to understand and treat insulin resistance.
Since the first batch of 97 students joined in July 2009, IIT Mandi has grown to currently host 125 faculty and 1,655 students who are enrolled in various programmes of studies in undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes, and 1,141 alumni.
IIT Mandi is a fully residential campus with 1.4 lakh sq. m. buildings completed. It has a guest house with 88 rooms, an 750-seater Auditorium, campus school, sports complex and hospital.
IIT Mandi has four Academic Schools and three major Research Centers. The Schools are: School of Computing and Electrical Engineering, School of Basic Sciences, School of Engineering, and School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
The Centers are: Advanced Materials Research Centre (AMRC; set up with an investment of Rs. 60 crore), Centre for Design and Fabrication of Electrical Devices (C4DFED; has Rs. 50 crore worth of fabrication tools), and BioX Centre (has acquired research equipment worth Rs. 15 crore).
In 2017, the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, selected IIT Mandi to lead the prestigious Rs. 10 crore FarmerZone Project.
To cater to the growing and changing needs of Indian industry and the aspirations of students, IIT Mandi has introduced 7 B.Tech., 7 M.Tech., 5 M.Sc., 4 Ph.D., 1 I-Ph.D and 1 M.A programmes in the past 10 years.
The unique, project-oriented B.Tech. curriculum is centered around its 4-year long Design and Innovation stream. From August 2019, IIT Mandi started 3 new and unique B. Tech. programmes in Data Science and Engineering, Engineering Physics, and Dual Degree in Bioengineering.
Since the inception of the Institute, IIT Mandi faculty have been involved in over 275 Research and Development (R&D) projects worth more than Rs. 120 crore. In the past 10 years, the Institute has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with as many as 11 international and 12 national universities.