Single one-hour endoscopic procedure could potentially control type 2 diabetes

Semaglutide on its own sometimes allows patients with Type 2 diabetes to quit taking insulin, but only in about 20% of cases, Busch said. In this study, 12 of 14 patients, or 86%, maintained good glycemic control without insulin for a year, suggesting the improvement is related to the procedure and not just to the semaglutide. Authors are beginning work on a double-blind randomized controlled trial to test these results.

“While drug therapy is ‘disease-controlling,’ it only reduces high blood sugar as long as the patient continues taking the medication,” said Jacques Bergman, M.D., PhD, principal investigator on the study and professor of gastrointestinal endoscopy at Amsterdam University Medical Center. “This one procedure is ‘disease-modifying’ in that it reverses the body’s resistance to its own insulin, the root cause of the Type-2 diabetes.”

Previous researchers explored the impact of ablation, using heat to modify the lining of the small intestine, after observing that patients who underwent gastric bypass experienced improved insulin control immediately after the surgery, even before any weight loss could occur, indicating that bypassing this portion of the small intestine plays a role in the glycemic control in Type 2 diabetes.

Researchers hypothesized that chronic exposure to a high-sugar, high caloric diet results in a yet unknown change to this portion of the small intestine, making the body resistant to its own insulin, Busch said. Researchers believe rejuvenating the tissue in this part of the intestine improves the body’s ability to respond to its own insulin, particularly in patients with Type 2 diabetes whose bodies still produce some insulin.