DIABETES ASSOCIATED BRAIN DAMAGE FOLLOWING SEVERE HYPOGLYCEMIA

描述（由申请方提供）：低血糖是接受胰岛素治疗的糖尿病患者日常管理中最常见的临床并发症，低血糖仍然是糖尿病血糖管理的限制因素。对于接受胰岛素治疗的糖尿病患者，严重低血糖导致“脑损伤”的潜在危险仍然是努力充分实现强化血糖控制相关获益的一个非常真实的障碍。动物实验表明，严重的低血糖可重复导致脑损伤和认知障碍。然而，在糖尿病患者中，严重低血糖的临床后果仍然是一个有激烈争议的领域，因为在记录认知损害程度的报告中存在明显的差异。下文介绍的初步研究证明了这一新发现，即血糖控制可显著改善或加重重度低血糖发作后的脑损伤程度。本提案的总体假设是，与糖尿病相关的代谢紊乱加重了严重胰岛素诱导低血糖发作后神经元损伤的程度，强化血糖控制和特定神经保护剂均可有效减轻此类脑损伤及其相关认知缺陷。该提案旨在开发方法来预防低血糖对大脑的不利影响。本研究建议的具体目标是：1）确定糖尿病是否在严重低血糖发作后增加脑损伤和认知下降的程度，并探索胰岛素作为神经保护剂以减轻增加的脑损伤和认知缺陷的可能性，2）探索复发性先前低血糖作用于预先调节脑从而保护对照和糖尿病大鼠免受严重低血糖的脑损伤作用的可能性，并鉴定这种保护现象的可能介质;和3）确定药物在预防严重低血糖发作后的脑损伤和认知功能障碍中的功效。 公共卫生相关性：对于接受胰岛素治疗的糖尿病患者，关于严重低血糖（低血糖）导致“脑损伤”的危险性的担忧仍然是努力充分实现与强化血糖控制相关的益处的一个非常真实的障碍。为了开发预防严重低血糖诱导的脑损伤和相关记忆/学习缺陷的方法，这些实验的结果有可能改变糖尿病患者的治疗模式。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Hypoglycemia is the most prevalent clinical complication in the daily management of insulin-treated people with diabetes and hypoglycemia continues to be the limiting factor in the glycemic management of diabetes. For insulin treated people with diabetes, concern regarding the hazardous potential for severe hypoglycemia to cause "brain damage" continues to be a very real barrier in striving to fully realize the benefits associated with intensive glycemic control. Experiments in animals demonstrate that severe hypoglycemia reproducibly leads to brain damage and cognitive impairments. In patients with diabetes however, the clinical consequences of severe hypoglycemia remains an area of intense controversy because there is a marked variability in reports documenting extent of cognitive damage. Preliminary studies presented below demonstrate the novel finding that glycemic control can significantly either improve or worsen the extent of brain damage following an episode of severe hypoglycemia. The overall hypothesis in this proposal is that the metabolic derangements associated with diabetes worsen the extent of neuronal damage following an episode of severe insulin-induced hypoglycemia and that both intensive glycemic control and specific neuroprotective agents can effectively mitigate against this type of brain damage and its associated cognitive deficits. This proposal seeks to develop approaches to prevent the detrimental effects of hypoglycemia on the brain. The specific aims to be addressed in this research proposal are to; 1) determine whether diabetes augments the extent of brain damage and cognitive decline following an episode of severe hypoglycemia and explore the possibility that insulin acts as a neuroprotective agent to mitigate against increased brain damage and cognitive deficits, 2) explore the possibility that recurrent antecedent hypoglycemia acts to pre-condition the brain thus protecting against the brain damaging effects of severe hypoglycemia in control and diabetic rats, and to identify the likely mediators of this protective phenomena, and 3) determine the efficacy of pharmaceutical agents in preventing brain damage and cognitive dysfunction following an episode of severe hypoglycemia. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: For insulin treated people with diabetes, concern regarding the hazardous potential for severe low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) to cause "brain damage" continues to be a very real barrier in striving to fully realize the benefits associated with intensive glycemic control. With a goal of developing approaches to prevent severe hypoglycemia-induced brain damage and associated memory/learning deficits, the results from these experiments have the potential for a change in the treatment paradigms for people with diabetes.