By manipulating the release of sugar by liver cells, Johns Hopkins scientists found a surprising and novel method of lowering sugar levels in mice, implying a treatment for conditions like diabetes. These findings have been published in the June issue of Cell Metabolism.

Researchers from Hopkins' Institute of Basic Biomedical Sciences and McKusick Nathans Institute for Genetic Medicine discovered a protein called GCN5 that is critical for controlling a domino-like cascade of molecular events that lead to the release of sugar from liver cells into the bloodstream.

"Understanding the ways that energy production and use are controlled is crucial to developing new drugs and therapies," says the report's senior author, Pere Puigserver, Ph.D., an assistant professor of cell biology at Hopkins.

The inability to properly regulate blood sugar levels leads to conditions like obesity and diabetes. Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes cause blood sugar levels to stay too high, which can lead to complications like blindness, kidney failure and nerve damage.

"Diabetes is a really big problem, even when patients are given insulin and stay on strict diets," says Carles Lerin, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in cell biology at Hopkins and an author of the report. "In the absence of a cure for the disease, we are really trying to focus on finding better treatment because currently available methods just don't work that efficiently," he says.

The role of GCN5 in maintaining blood sugar levels, when better understood will lead to a clearer picture of the mechanism by which the body utilizes sugar other nutrients to make, store and spend energy.

Read more at Johns Hopkins.