(STUDY FINDS) – A pill that has been treating high blood pressure for over 40 years may help end daily insulin injections for diabetics, a new study finds. Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham say verapamil boosts beta cells in the pancreas that produce insulin.
Type 1 diabetes causes patients to lose these cells. Diabetics need regular shots of the glucose controlling hormone and there is no current oral therapy. The autoimmune disease develops due to an over-reaction of T-cells and cytokines that mistake the cells for foreign bodies.
“Now our results reveal for the first time that verapamil treatment may also affect the immune system and reverse these Type 1 diabetes-induced changes,” says lead author Professor Anath Shalev in a university release.
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