The next big diabetes drug may have been sitting in the salad saloon all along . research worker say concentrated broccoli sprout extract could be an excellent instrument for regulating blood glucose in people with Type 2 diabetes ( T2D ) . They published their findings in the journalScience Translational Medicine .
scientist have been interested in broccoli sprout extract ( BSE ) for some metre now . The dynamic ingredient , a compound called sulforaphane ( SFN ) , has already been test as a potential treatment for a identification number of conditions , including malignant neoplastic disease and inveterate obstructive pneumonic disease .
Nobody had consider SFN fordiabetesbefore . The authors of the current field of study were n’t even considering it . They had just been looking for existing drugs that matched T2D ’s genic signature . Out of 3852 unlike compound , just a few possible leads emerged . The most promising among them was SFN .
The researchers took that lead and ran with it . They try out the chemical compound ’s effects on the liver and blood dough in not one , but a whole bunch of circumstance , bulge with information processing system mannikin of cistron , then move to liver cells culture in the lab , then mice and rats .
The results of each experimentation informed the next one — and the final result were promising . SFN seemed to reduce glucose production in liver cells and switch T2D gene expression in rats .
Finally , the researchers moved into test the drug on people . They levy 103 corpulent people with toilsome - to - manage T2D at a Swedish infirmary and tested how well each person ’s torso metabolized glucose . For 12 week , discipline participants took a day-after-day dose of either BSE center or a placebo . They watched for other symptoms or side effects and supervise their blood sugar as usual . Two weeks later , the researchers checked the participants ’ glucose tolerance again .
The result were as encouraging as the late experiment ’ . Patients who took the drug saw significantly decreased roue sugar levels without any serious side effects . And , the authors pen , “ SFN also protect against diabetic tortuousness such as neuropathy , nephritic failure , and atherosclerosis in creature models because of its antioxidative effects . ”
Before we all get too excited , there are alotof caveats to count .
“ High doses of BSE can not yet be urge to affected role as a drug treatment but would require further work , ” the writer compose , “ include data on which mathematical group of patients would potentially benefit most from it . ”
That ’s for sure . All of the experiments we describe here were pocket-size . All of the rat and mouse , and 75 percentage of the human participants , were male . All 97 human who completed the cogitation were Swedish , obese , and between the ages of 35 and 75 , and all the women involved were postmenopausal . And study participant took polished BSE . They did n’t just consume broccoli sprouts .
