Posted: January 27, 2012

Dr. Jerry L. Nadler, director of the EVMS Strelitz Diabetes Center

Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk has received a $1.8 million grant to research a new preventive treatment for diabetes and heart disease. The five-year research grant is from the National Institutes of Health.

The funding will support research on how to stop chronic inflammation - a trigger for disease among the overweight.

"Inflammation is key to why central 'belly' fat leads to high risk for diabetes, heart disease and maybe even some forms of cancer," said Jerry L. Nadler MD, director of the EVMS Strelitz Diabetes Center, in a release from the school. Nadler is also the principal investigator on the grant and a professor and chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at EVMS.

Nearly 80 percent of people who develop type 2 diabetes also develop heart disease, the release said. To fight the epidemic, EVMS researchers will examine a potentially new treatment by exploring the protein Interleukin-12 (IL-12) and how it signals a gene "switch" called STAT-4.

"As IL-12 goes up, it activates the gene switch, and we think when that is unregulated or not regulated correctly, it leads to excessive inflammation around the blood vessels and in the body," Nadler said. "That can lead to heart disease, insulin resistance and potentially to diabetes."

Other researchers from the school include Anca D. Dobrian Ph.D., assistant professor of physiological sciences and co-investigator on the grant, and Elena Galkina, Ph.D., assistant professor of microbiology and molecular cell biology.

EVMS researchers will also collaborate with other scientists including Alan Chait MD, from the University of Washington, and Mark Kaplan Ph.D. at Indiana University.

Dobrian said there was already preliminary evidence that excess visceral fat can increase inflammation in the fat surrounding the blood vessels.

"The cross-talk between visceral fat, vascular fat and blood vessels is an exciting, novel concept that may explain better the complex relationship between obesity, diabetes and heart disease," Dobrian said.

Nadler agreed that the research has the potential to birth a breakthrough study. Mice and donated human tissue will be used by researchers.

"Right now we don't have any treatments like this. Nothing is on the market to target that kind of inflammation," Nadler said, in the release. "If this works, it will open up a whole new idea of how to treat people with obesity, with heart disease and maybe even prevent diabetes."

By Danielle Walker

danielle.walker@insidebiz.com