With the term prediabetes o glucose intolerance means a condition characterized by high glucose levels (high blood sugar) in the blood. A condition that concerns, according to the latest estimates, 10 million Italians and that, in some cases, it can lead to diabeteschronic disease due to an alteration insulin, which can lead to severe complications on the body.
It goes without saying that be able to identify the risk of a pathological evolution early of prediabetes would represent a very important opportunity for many people.
Well, a step forward in this direction was taken by a recent Italian study which has identified one molecule that would be able to predict the risk for people with high blood sugar to develop type 2 diabetes.
The research, recently published in the journal Cardiovascular Diabetology, was conducted byIRCCS MultiMedica as part of the research project DIAPASON (Diabetes Prediction And Screening: ObservatioNal study), which saw the collaboration between the family doctors of the ATS Milano Città Metropolitana, the University of Milan, the Lombardy Region and the Ministry of Health with the support of the Romeo and Enrica Invernizzi Foundation.
The researchers screened 1,506 people: among them, 531 patients they appeared to have a very high risk of getting diabetes and they did recruited for the study.
Since in previous analyzes by the same research group, an association was observed between high blood glucose and a small molecule of RNA, miR-21, the researchers went to measure the concentration of this molecule. A subgroup of 207 patients, who had particularly alarming blood glucose levels, was then proposed a “habit-intervention” programnamely a lifestyle change based on the Mediterranean diet.
According to what emerged from the study, in84% of subjects who had followed the new diet, was detected not only weight loss, decrease in body mass index and improvement of cardiometabolic parameters, with reduction of blood sugar, but above all a reduction of miR-21.
The result therefore confirmed the existence of a significant relationship between this molecule and blood glucose values.
The information contained in miR-21 would therefore be very valuable because it is capable of indicating on which patients hyperglycemia is starting to cause damage and on which it is therefore a priority to intervene.
Prediabetes: the importance of lifestyle
«The dosage of miR-21, associated with blood sugar, can therefore become a new important indicator of prediabetes and the risk of experiencing full-blown diabetes – explains Lucia La Sala, researcher at IRCCS MultiMedica and signatory of the study.
But not only. The research has in fact also had the merit of highlighting the importancefor those suffering from prediabetes, to run for cover following a healthy lifestylebased on abalanced nutrition and physical activity.
“As blood sugar increases, oxidative stress also develops, a cause of vascular damage, fueled by the same miR-21 that inhibits the antioxidant capacity of cells – explains Lucia La Sala – After the lifestyle intervention, we observed a significant reduction of this damage which, being within the range of prediabetes, is still reversible. A similar result allows us to state that miR-21 is also a reliable molecular marker of harmful reactions triggered by hyperglycemia and their eventual regression“.
Source: Vanity Fair
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