Lets turn it back on..

There are a lot of people in my family that have suffered from diabetes. Both of my dad's parents died because of the disease and some of my uncles have it as well as my dad. Therefore, my siblings and I are obviously at great risk of getting it. Scary huh?

Although we try our best to help our dad by having a healthy diet and controlling his sugar levels, it is a disease that cannot be reversed. It's hard to see him at such a young age carrying around a "lunch bag" full of pills, but this article gives me hope.

Glucokinase is the enzyme responsible for signaling the pancreas and liver to order the body to process glucose. This is the enzyme that is targeted by pharmaceuticals when creating drugs for diabetic patients. Most of the current drugs aim at activating the enzyme, but they only target one specific pathway.

Glucokinase needs to be turned on are activated in order for it to properly handle glucose in the body, however when somebody has diabetes, glucokinase is impaired and therefore the person develops the disease. Researchers at Florida State University have discovered a new pathway that can be used to potentially interrupt the deactivation of glucokinase. The enzyme has an allosteric site that can be altered due to its flexibility. The researchers have also used NMR to track and visualize the speed or rate of the enzyme and how it changes from the non-variant to the disease variant form. They hope to use the information to successfully activate the enzyme and test it for its ability to control the disease. The only con to this is that, overexpression can also be detrimental since it can cause hyperinsulinemia.

This can be great if they’re able to activate it to the point where it serves its purpose without causing something else.

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