ScienceDaily (June 4, 2012) — Drugs for type 2 diabetes can contribute to weight gain, bone fractures and cardiovascular problems, but in mice, an investigational drug appears to improve insulin sensitivity without those troublesome side effects, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown.
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The experimental medicine works through a different pathway, which could provide additional molecular targets for treating insulin resistance and diabetes. The new study appears online in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
"Current diabetes medications activate a receptor that improves insulin sensitivity, but unfortunately also contributes to side effects that make some people discontinue the medication, contributing to other health problems," says principal investigator Brian N. Finck, PhD. "So even though these drugs are effective, we'd really like to find new insulin-sensitizing therapies that would avoid activating the same receptor."
Finck, a research assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Geriatrics and Nutritional Science, worked with colleagues at the University of Michigan and at the drug discovery company Metabolic Solutions Development Co., LLC. The scientists studied one of the company's investigational drugs, MSD-0602, focusing on its effects in obese mice.

The drug improved blood glucose levels and insulin tolerance in the mice, as did the two diabetes drugs that already are on the market: rosiglitazone (Avandia) and pioglitazone (Actos). All three medications appeared to be about equally effective, but MSD-0602 didn't bind to and activate a receptor in cells called PPAR