Written by Rashelle Predovnik Thursday, 11 March 2010 14:24
SHANGHAI University scientists and researchers from the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research (WAIMR) are working together in a bid to offer new research leads into the treatments for diabetes.
The collaborative work aims to study the use of traditional Chinese medicine to combat diabetic blindness and the ability of lupins to tackle diabetes but the researchers say the key to success may be locked in genetics.
In a recent trip to China, WAIMR Professor Grant Morahan received an honorary professorship at The Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine for his contribution to science and anticipated collaboration between the two research groups.
Prof Morahan says the Shanghai researchers will utilise the models and methods created by his team, which were currently being used to test the health benefits of lupin kernels.
“What we will be looking at in particular is drugs from traditional Chinese medicine that can be used to treat diabetic blindness.
“The Shanghai researchers will isolate active compounds in traditional Chinese medicine and we will test them in our systems to see if these remedies may offer benefits, as well as investigating how genetics may affect the outcome.”
Shaping up to be an important ingredient in diabesity-friendly diets, lupin kernel flour lowers cholesterol, is low in carbohydrates and is high in protein and fibre.
Lupin-based foods can also reduce appetite, with participants in a study on overweight women at the WAIMR-based Centre for Food and Genomic Medicine last year claiming they felt fuller and less hungry three hours after a meal.
It seems genetics may hold the key to unlocking the mystery of why some people with diabetes respond well to lupin diets while others don’t.
Prof Morahan says research has discovered our genetic makeup can adversely affect our ability to absorb the health benefits of lupin grain crops.
“What we’ve been able to do is test these lupin diets and it’s showing that lupins can indeed improve some of the traits related to diabetes including insulin resistance and reduction of the body weight.
“But what we’ve also found is this doesn’t work for everybody. It’s just for individuals with the right genetic background.
“So what we are trying to do now is identify the genes which allow people to respond to this lupin diet.”
Prof Morahan says Western Australia grows 85 percent of the worlds’ lupin crop so his team is specifically looking at Australian sweet lupin.
“It will be a huge health benefit if we can find some way to reduce the general average body weight of the population.
“There is a diabetes epidemic and the incidence of Type 2 diabetes is increasing right around the world, so if there is anything we can do to reduce the incidence of diabetes that would be very important.”
