Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 7 May 1999:
Vol. 284. no. 5416, p. 886
DOI: 10.1126/science.284.5416.886a
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

News of the Week

DIABETES RESEARCH:
New Lead Found to a Possible 'Insulin Pill'

Trisha Gura

A team of researchers has found that a lowly fungus called Pseudomassaria that grows deep in the African forests near Kinshasa produces a unique agent that could lead to a new type of antidiabetes pill. In work reported on page 974, the team gave the compound to mutant mice with symptoms similar to those of patients suffering from adult onset or type 2 diabetes. The agent reduced these symptoms in the animals, the researchers found, apparently by tweaking the same cellular receptor that insulin acts on. But, unlike insulin, the fungal compound is not a protein and, thus, could likely withstand the body's potent digestive juices.

Read the Full Text

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)