Blood Sugar Control Helps Diabetics Preserve Sight

Maintaining good control over one's blood sugar levels can help people with type 1 diabetes better avoid retinopathy, a serious disorder that damages the eye's retina, researchers say.

The findings come from a 25-year study that confirms prior large studies. The findings were published in the November issue of Ophthalmology.

The Wisconsin Epidemiologic Study of Diabetic Retinopathy also found that being male, having higher blood pressure, having protein in urine (a manifestation of diabetic kidney disease) and a greater body mass index also increased one's risk of developing diabetic retinopathy.

Maintaining glycemic control, based on blood levels of glycosylated hemoglobin A1 -- a measure of average blood sugar -- helped improve the condition in those that had it as well, regardless of how long the patient had type 1 diabetes or how far along the diabetic retinopathy was at the start of the study.

The almost 1,000 study participants had all been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes before age 30, and were on insulin to combat it. All were initially evaluated between 1980 and 1982, and were followed up on periodically over 25 years. About half completed the entire study.

Spot on treatment for acne

A previously unknown side effect of an unnamed drug currently on the marketplace could be useful for treating acne, reports Chemistry & Industry, the magazine of the SCI. A UK company is about to start a Phase 1 trial with the drug involving 18 healthy human volunteers and the results are expected to be announced later this year. In an earlier Phase 1 study in nine healthy human volunteers, the treatment was seen to reduce the excretion of sebum by the skin, which is associated with acne development, by up to 70%.

The Phase I results are startlingly good, said Nigel Blackburn, director of clinical development at the company, Summit, which is organising the trial. Reducing sebum production has been the holy grail of acne treatment for 30 years, and there has been little success aside from Roaccutane which has significant side effects.

The current gold standard for acne treatment, Roaccutane can cause a wide range of side effects, including teratogenicity which leads to abonormalities in the unborn foetus of pregnant women, and has also recently been linked to depression and (inconclusively) to teenage suicides. The market for acne treatments is worth several billion dollars, and any new treatment developed without side effects could potentially reap blockbuster sales.

Although Summit has not disclosed the name of the drug now under evaluation, the company says it represents an entirely new class of compounds for treating acne. At the doses we are looking at any side effects should be mild compared with those resulting from Roaccutane treatment, Blackburn commented.

The company hopes to begin critical Phase 2 trials to assess the efficacy of the drug in acne sufferers next year. Depending on the results, the drug could either be formulated as a stand-alone topical treatment or more likely in combination with other existing treatments. The company has already been in talks with several interested companies, who are waiting