The Kay Prize for the development was awarded to Prof. Shlomo Sasson from the Hebrew University
A new technology developed by a researcher from the Hebrew University may lead to an orally administered drug that regulates glucose levels in type 2 diabetes patients and thereby replaces less effective diabetes treatments. For his groundbreaking work yesterday Prof. Shlomo Sasson from the School of Pharmacy at the Hebrew University received the Kay Award for Innovative Developments as part of the 72nd session of the Board of Trustees of the Hebrew University.
Type 2 diabetes is a common disease that is expected to affect 380 million people worldwide within the next 20 years. The disease is characterized by high levels of glucose in the blood and urine and serious complications in various tissues and organs of the body. The disease is caused by a problem in the production of the hormone insulin in the body and a lack of response of various tissues such as the skeletal muscles to the hormone.
The drug treatments against diabetes that exist today are designed to regulate blood glucose levels, but since the existing drugs are not always effective or are not effective over time, many patients need insulin injection treatment during their illness.
Prof. Sasson along with his research partners Prof. Errol Charasi and Prof. Yehoshua Katzhandler and research students found in their research that high levels of the carbohydrate xylose increase the levels of glucose entering skeletal muscles. The researchers used the xylose sugar as a prototype for the design and synthesis of new molecules that could in the future be used as a new type of drug to regulate and lower blood glucose levels in type 2 diabetics.
In a study carried out in the laboratory at the Department of Pharmacology, it was found that low concentrations of some of these new derivatives effectively increased the rate of glucose uptake into skeletal muscle cells both in cell cultures and in diabetic mice. It was found that these substances do not mimic the mechanism of action of the hormone insulin, but activate a different type of enzyme, AMPK. When this enzyme is activated, the amount of glucose absorbed by the skeletal muscles increases even in the absence of insulin. Therefore, these substances that activate the enzyme can prove to be effective in further development, especially in patients who do not respond to conventional medical treatment for diabetes or insulin treatment.
The technology was commercialized in 2008 by Application, the research development company of the Hebrew University, to the French company DIAB, which will develop diabetes drugs based on the research.
The K. K. Award ceremony for innovative developments has been held at the Hebrew University every year since 1994. Sir Yitzhak K. from England, a prominent industrialist in the pharmaceutical industry, founded the practice of awarding prizes to encourage university faculty and students to develop innovative methods with commercial potential that would benefit the university and society .
13 תגובות
Prof. Sassoon is one of the most unpleasant and anti-social people I have ever met in my life.
Smug, pleasure-seeking, dismissive and a sociopath.
Of course, these things do not diminish the importance of the research.
Of course, Prof. Sasson derived the drug formula from the discovery of the 'extract' of the 'fenugreek' seeds: if you take out the unpleasant stick, that the product (diuretic) stinks, you can live with it in blood glucose regulation until the age of 100, for those who wish to do so :)
Mansyon: That's how my grandmother, the Jewish woman, managed to balance the diabetes in her blood, up to an extreme age.
And let's not forget the golden candies made by 'Alit' of that time, which helped her regulate her sugar levels.
Noam: Please don't respond/because my nose might itch...which means..
A. Ben-Ner:
The problem is not the definition of the term "healing".
The whole discussion started with Raanan's sarcastic response that he is "surprised" that they are still with us.
From this it is also clear what meaning of "healing" he meant.
He meant healing in the strongest sense of the word - one that causes the disease to disappear.
The truth is that his words can be understood even more and this is an observation that not only will the disease be completely cured in those who have it, but that no one will get it anymore (because otherwise it would not have disappeared).
This is what I claimed and I continue to claim that the presentation of things in his mouth is unfair.
After all, Ra'anan did not base his "freaking out"/rebuke on what he is trying to convey to the doctors (also without justification) in his last response, but on the fact that the disease did not disappear even though they supposedly claimed that they made it disappear.
In fact - in his last response - even if he didn't mean it - the tzadik renewed my claim that the doctors never said such a thing.
He also went to the trouble of pinning another conspiracy on them and I'll touch on that later, but it's important to emphasize that now suddenly he not only admits that the doctors never said what he attributed to them in his first response and on which his rebuke rested - but that doctors never say or do such things because they are human shit.
After clarifying this point, I would also like to protest the new claim.
First of all - there are many diseases that have disappeared.
Second - the claim is based on an unrealistic "logic" according to which researchers in the field of medicine serve the clinical doctors and not the public. This is of course not true. A researcher in the field of medicine - like everyone else - is looking for recognition for his work and it is clear to everyone that eradicating the disease will get him more recognition than turning it into a chronic disease.
Thirdly - he attributes to doctors a desire to make patients chronically ill and not healthy. It's just a plot. I have no finer words to describe it.
To Michael R. and refresh
The use of the word "healing" is not sufficiently defined and this is the root of the dispute between you.
Healing is a concept based on the continuum from:
1-Beginning with …………………….."preventing the disease"
2- Go through... "Complete healing after the onset of the disease"
3-go through……… "a chronic drug for a chronic disease"
4- And included in …….."a life-prolonging drug for a terminally ill patient".
At the same time, it should be noted that the article reports on the expansion of the healing range. The article reports on the discovery of disease factors, additional to those that were known until now. See what is written about xylose carbohydrate and AMPK enzyme and their effect on glucose uptake into skeletal muscle cells. This is probably the new biochemical mechanism that was not known until now.
refresh.
Scientific research, unfortunately, progresses, mostly, in small steps, thumb on the side. this is the situation. Better than no progress at all.
It is certainly not about general healing methods that will cure the patient completely, the goal of medicine is not for the patients to be healthy, those who will be chronic patients who pay for medicine all their lives. Medicine is interested in money not people.
And I repeat and ask you, Raanan, about the current article.
Do you really think that anyone behind him claimed to cure diabetes?
fresh:
There are no such publications, and if there were, you would not have avoided them.
All the publications are about very limited ways to deal with the diseases and not about a comprehensive healing method.
Regarding the publications, you are welcome to search on Google for words such as diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, etc.
It does claim to treat diabetes, unequivocally yes.
fresh:
So come and reveal these publications to us.
By the way - do you disagree that in the current article no one claims to cure diabetes?
You have not been exposed to these publications and therefore you think so.
fresh:
No medicine has ever been published that is supposed to cure diabetes, and this time no medicine of this kind has been published either!
All published drugs deal with "current maintenance" and regulation of sugar levels.
It is thought that maybe one day it will be possible to cure the disease through gene therapy or stem cell transplantation, but to date no one has ever claimed to do this.
According to the number of times statements have been made to develop a cure for diabetes/cancer/Alzheimer's, etc., it's a wonder they are still with us.