New pill for neonatal diabetes

Two years ago investigators in America discovered a genetic cause for approximately half of all new cases of neonatal diabetes . They found a flaw that prevents the body from producing insulin . Testing a hypothesis, researchers found that pills used by older diabetics could circumvent the mutatio, allowing patients to produce insulin for the first time .
The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and details testing the idea that the pills could better control the disease. Experts at the University of Dundee in Scotland carried out the new research. Dr. Pearso, a lecturer at the University, reported: “Anybody who was diagnosed before six months of age should go and have a genetic test for the mutation. If they have it, there is a 9 in 10 chance they could come off insulin.”
Neonatal diabetes is a very rare occurrence, and at this stage occurs in just 1 in 100,000 births. At an early stage, patients are treated with daily insulin shots like type 1 diabetics.
The new revelations hold some hope that the disease could be averted at an earlier stage, avoided the complications that occur after diabetes has been present in the body for some time .