News from Glycosmedia

• Relationship between HbA1c and risk of all-cause hospital admissions among people with Type 2 diabetes

  In people with Type 2 diabetes, a non-linear relationship exists between HbA1c and the risk of hospitalization. A threshold of 61 mmol/mol (7.7%) was associated with the lowest rate of all-cause hospital admissions. Further research should investigate the causes of admissions below and above this threshold, with a view to developing strategies to reduce the excess hospitalization among patients with diabetes (Diabetic Medicine)

• Interpreting Adverse Signals in Diabetes Drug Development Programs

  This review considers some recent signals associated with diabetes therapies, illustrating the difficulties in ascribing causality and evaluating absolute risk, predictability, prevention, and containment. Individual clinical trials are necessarily restricted for patient selection, number, and duration; they can introduce allocation and ascertainment bias and they often rely on biomarkers to estimate long-term clinical outcomes (Diabetes Care)

• Key vildagliptin data in The Lancet

  Show for the first time individualized HbA1c treatment goals can be reached in elderly type 2 diabetes patients with no major tolerability issues - The Lancet paper (Novartis)

• Endoplasmic Reticulum Is at the Crossroads of Autophagy, Inflammation, and Apoptosis Signaling Pathways and Participates in the Pathogenesis of Diabetes Mellitus

  The ER is therefore an attractive potential therapeutic target, and maintaining or improving ER function appropriately may prevent chronic metabolic disease. However, further studies to understand the theoretical and experimental basis of such a potential “organelle treatment” are required before such therapies can be applied (Journal of Diabetes Research)

• A specific and sensitive assay for blood levels of glycated CD59: A novel biomarker for diabetes

  We report the development and standardization of a novel, sensitive, and specific ELISA for measuring GCD59 in blood. The assay distinguished individuals with diabetes from those without, and showed strong correlation between GCD59 and HbA1c. Because GCD59 likely contributes to the pathogenesis of diabetes complications, measurement of blood levels of GCD59 may be useful in the diagnosis and management of diabetes (American Journal of Hematology)