Investigation of pancreatic insulin-secreting cell function and survival

糖尿病仍然是澳大利亚的一个主要健康问题。1型和2型糖尿病最终都是由于胰腺产生胰岛素的β细胞破坏，这主要是由细胞死亡引起的，即所谓的“细胞凋亡”或细胞的程序性自杀。因此，试图保护β细胞免于死亡并挽救其胰岛素分泌功能正在成为治疗糖尿病的一种策略。然而，β细胞如何死亡以及如何保护细胞死亡仍未完全了解。我们最近发现了一种名为鞘氨酸激酶的新蛋白，它是抵抗细胞死亡的强大保护剂。我们还发现该酶参与胰岛素分泌过程。因此，这项应用试图确立这种酶在保护β细胞免于死亡和促进细胞分泌胰岛素方面的双重作用。这将最终使我们能够创造新的治疗策略，以这种蛋白质为目标来管理糖尿病。

Diabetes remains a major health problem in Australia. Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes is eventually due to pancreatic insulin-producing beta-cell destruction, which is caused mainly by the cell death, so called 'apoptosis' or programmed suicide of the cells. Thus, attempting to protect beta-cells against death and rescue their insulin secretory function is emerging as a strategy for the treatment of diabetes. However, how the beta-cells undergo death and how to protect the cell death are still not completely understood. We have recently discovered a new protein, named sphingosine kinase, that is a strong protector against cell death. We also found that this enzyme is involved in process of insulin secretion. Thus, this application seeks to establish a dual role of this enzyme in protecting beta-cells from death and promoting insulin secretion by the cells. This will ultimately allow us to create new therapeutic strategy to target this protein for the management of diabetes.