8 May Understanding How The Bacteria In Our Gut Affects Diabetes May 8, 2017 By The Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center 0 DRC Director's Report, May 2017 Diabetes significantly increases the risk for heart attacks and stroke. However treating blood sugar levels and even high cholesterol in the blood might not completely prevent these complications of diabetes. For this reason many researchers are looking for new connections between diabetes and vascular disease. FOEDRC researchers Dr. Ajit Vikram and Kaikobad Irani recently published an important discovery in the Journal Nature Communications that provides new understanding of why blood vessel inflammation and damage occurs in subjects at high risk for cardiovascular disease. Their work discovered a previously undiscovered interaction between bacteria in the gut, which had previously been implicated in diabetes risk, and cardiovascular complications. The trillions of bacteria that colonize the gut play multiple roles in health and disease. Certain forms of gut bacteria promote diabetes, lead to weight gain, and also play an important part in heart disease. This work illustrates a new mode of communication between bacteria in the gut and blood vessels, and how this communication leads to malfunction of blood vessels that can eventually precipitate plaque build-up and lead to heart disease. The gut bacteria signal through the blood stream to change expression of a class of small RNAs, termed microRNAs in the wall of the blood vessel. These microRNAs then target genes that maintain vascular health. Thus, this remote yet intricate communication between the gut and blood vessels impairs normal and healthy functioning of these vessels. It has been said that the way to man’s heart is through is stomach. These remarkable findings suggest that might be true! Importantly they lay important groundwork for developing new approaches and targets for reducing cardiovascular complications in high-risk subjects with diabetes. Related Articles DRC Researchers Publish Major Breakthrough In Understanding How Diabetes Induces Eye Damage In the retina, diabetes damages nerves before it damages blood vessels. Diabetes is a major risk factor for severe vision loss and blindness. A condition known as retinal diabetic neuropathy causes visual impairment through the degeneration of small nerves (neurons) in light-sensitive tissue called the retina, which lines the back of the eye. How Diabetes Harms The Heart Study in mice involving FOEDRC researchers, reveals heart-damaging pathway triggered by insulin, identifies possible drug targets to prevent or treat heart failure. Diabetes is hard on the heart. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in people with diabetes, and risk for heart failure—where the heart can’t pump enough blood—is two to three times higher in men and up to five times higher in women with diabetes compared to people without diabetes. American Diabetes Association Supports FOEDRC Researchers DRC Director's Report - January 2018 Three researchers from the FOEDRC received new grants from the American Diabetes Association for groundbreaking research. The ability of our members to receive these competitive awards is truly remarkable and underscores the quality and rigor of the research that is being conducted in the FOEDRC. There are few institutions that received multiple awards in this current round of ADA funding. The awards to Drs. Ling Yang, Rajan Sah and Adam Rauckhorst are summarized below. Progress In Preventing Eye Disease In Diabetes A research team lead by Mark A. Greiner, M.D., Assistant Professor, Cornea and External Diseases in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and member of the FOEDRC, at the University of Iowa is doing interesting work in understanding how diabetes affects the Cornea. Technology Developed By DRC Researcher Could Preserve Vision for Diabetes Patients University of Iowa Health Care patients are the first in the nation to have access to a new technology that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to diagnose diabetic retinopathy. The technology, known as IDx-DR, is the only medical device authorized by the Food and Drug Administration that uses AI for the autonomous detection of diabetic retinopathy. The device’s algorithm makes the diagnosis based on imaging of the patient’s retina without the need for an eye specialist to interpret the results. Casey Receives Grant Funding from American Diabetes Association Congratulations to Darren Casey, PhD, assistant professor of physical therapy and rehabilitation science, for recently receiving the American Diabetes Association Innovative Clinical or Translational Science Award. For his proposal entitled - Nitrate supplementation and exercise tolerance in patients with Type 2 Diabetes. Dr. Casey received this award after a National Competition that selected a fraction of the most meritorious proposals. Showing 0 Comment Comments are closed.