Fresh New Zealand diabetes discovery

A team of researchers in New Zealand have made an important new diabetes breakthrough that could one day aid diabetic patients throughout the world.
The team, based at the Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery in Auckland University, found that the internal dynamics of a particular molecule could aid in the development of a new type of diabetes drug. The enzymen, known as myoinositol oxygenase (MIOX), was mapped by the researchers.
Details of the structure they found are published in the US Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers concluded that diabetes could be associated with variations in inositol metabolism. The MIOX enzyme can break down compounds of this type and regulate inositol levels in the body.
The news will be welcome for diabetes patients throughout the world, not least in New Zealand itself. New Zealand has not escaped the diabetes and obesity epidemic, with over 200,000 sufferers in the country .
The director of the Wilkins’ Centre, Ted Baker, said: This is a very exciting discovery for our team, and a testament to the multidisciplinary approach of the centre. Diabetes is a major problem, not just in New Zealand but globally. It is through gathering knowledge of biological mechanisms that we can hope to treat and prevent diseases such as this effectively in the future .”