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Improving Early Intervention-Based Diabetes Treatment Using Medicinal Plants

AJAS · 2019 Biomedical and Health Sciences (inferred)

Diya Jayram · Florida Academy of Sciences

Overview

One in eleven people will have a form of diabetes during their lifetime (WHO, 2014). In 2012, diabetes and its life-threatening side effects costed 245 billion dollars in the United States (ADA, 2017). Averting type 2 diabetes (T2D) will significantly reduce health care costs and engender a healthier population. A primary cause of diabetes is insulin resistance, which is prompted by disruption to insulin signal transduction. The objective was to maximize insulin sensitivity by creating a more effective, early intervention-based treatment to avert severe T2D. This treatment combined metformin, “the insulin sensitizer”, and medicinal plants, curcumin, fenugreek, and nettle.To conduct this study, 3T3-L1 fibroblasts were propagated and differentiated into adipocytes. An Oil Red O assay verified differentiation. Free fatty acids (FFAs) were used to induce insulin resistance. A leptin (the appetite hormone) assay, GLUT4 assay, and Akt/PI3K assay measured leptin concentration, GLUT4 pathway function (glucose uptake), and Akt serine phosphorylation, respectively. These three proteins/pathways served as quantitative measurements for insulin sensitivity, since they are essential to insulin signaling. In conclusion, each plant-enhanced combination treatments attenuated the effects of FFAs and reversed leptin, GLUT4, and phospho-Akt concentration to normal. As a result, these treatments have the potential to combat obesity, augment glucose uptake, and heighten Akt/PI3K pathway function, increasing the efficiency of metformin almost two-fold. All data was significant when a t-test and an ANOVA was run. This study offers an improved multifunctional early intervention-based diabetes treatment that maximizes insulin sensitivity.

Competition history

  • AJAS 2019 Category not listed

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Source: AAAS Annual Meeting (Confex) / American Junior Academy of Science

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