Scientists discover molecules that regulate liver's glucose production

Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have discovered a pair of molecules that regulates the liver’s glucose production. A new study published this week in Nature demonstrates that controlling these two molecules could offer a new way to lower blood sugar to treat insulin-resistant type II diabetes. Scientists found a glucagon, a hormone released by the pancreas during fasting, turns on the genetic switch CRTC2, which increases the production of insulin in the blood. When insulin is increased, the activity of the switch is inhibited, and the liver produces less glucose. The other component of this relay system is a molecular receptor called IP3, which glucagon opens to increase calcium, stimulating calcineurin, which revs up CRTC2, allowing the liver to produce more glucose. "If you control these switches, you can control the production of glucose, which is really at the heart of the problem of type 2 diabetes," says Mark R. Montiny, of the Salk Institute.

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