Diabetes breakthrough offers hope to patients

A 33-year-old Angus woman who has been insulin dependent since being diagnosed with diabetes as a 12-week-old baby has had her life transformed thanks to staff within the School of Medicine.

Researchers recognized Niona MacDougall from Carnoustie as having a rare form of diabetes which is caused by a genetic defect uncovered by scientists in 2004. It can be treated with tablets rather than daily insulin injections.

As a result of the new treatment Niona is able to control her condition much more effectively.

'Life now is easier, more comfortable and just generally happier,' said Niona. 'I just generally feel a lot better and my diabetes is under much better control now. Since coming off insulin I've also lost over a stone in weight, which is great as well!'

Dr Ewan Pearson, Senior Lecturer in the Biomedical Research Institute at the Medical School and Consultant Physician at Ninewells Hospital, worked on the initial project in 2004 which identified the gene fault which causes a rare form of genetic diabetes.

This was followed by the discovery that it can be treated with sulphonylurea, a standard diabetes tablet which is normally used to treat type 2 diabetes, albeit without the same dramatic effects.

Dr Pearson is delighted that this breakthrough has led to treatments being delivered to patients like Niona so quickly.

'The tablets offer an extremely effective treatment for Niona's diabetes - for the majority of patients with this kind of diabetes it will actually result in them becoming non-diabetic,' he said.

He is now hoping other patients around the UK will soon benefit from the same treatment.

'If someone has been diagnosed with diabetes in the first 6 months after birth then there is a fairly strong chance they will have this form of the disease,' he said.

'I am sure there are other people in Scotland and the rest of the UK who, like Niona, have diabetes that developed at a very young age. Whatever their current age now anyone diagnosed with diabetes under the age of one should speak to their diabetes team to discuss having a simple genetic test as it might be possible to treat their diabetes differently.'

Dr Pearson stressed that while the treatment did not work for patients with the far more common Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, it did show scientists were making strides in gaining a greater understanding of the disease.

'This is a completely separate thing from those more common types of diabetes,' said Dr Pearson.

'However, what I would say is that this offers encouragement that we are improving our understanding of diabetes. We are chipping away at the face of it and making advances all the time that should help us better manage and treat diabetes.'

It was a study led by Prof. Andrew Hattersley of the Peninsula Medical School in the UK which originally identified sulphonylurea as a treatment for patients with diabetes caused by a defect in the Kir6.2 gene. More information on this type of diabetes can be found at http://www.diabetesgenes.org.