A Spanish researcher, Adolfo García-Ocaña, has led a study from the United States that could change our understanding of type 2 diabetes.
Finally, someone has given a name to a process that many scientists suspected: how the beta cells of the pancreas, responsible for producing insulin, lose their identity and begin to behave like alpha cells, which do just the opposite—increase blood glucose.
The finding focuses on a gene called SMOC1, which in people with type 2 diabetes is “activated” where it should not be, causing beta cells to become disoriented.Imagine that the cells in charge of lowering glucose get confused and begin to raise it... that's how complex and fascinating the human body is.
The encouraging thing is that this discovery opens new avenues for treatment:
🧬 SMOC1 could be used as a biomarker to detect beta cell malfunction earlier.
🚫 Blocking it or controlling its activity could help protect natural insulin production.
🔄 There is even talk of reprogramming cells so that they behave like beta again and regain their function.
As a person with diabetes, reading news like this fills me with excitement.It reminds us that research is advancing, that there are scientists—some of them Spanish—devoting their lives to understanding how this disease works and how we could improve its treatment or even reverse some of its effects.
Behind every graph, every cell and every gene, we are: the people who live with diabetes every day, dreaming that science will continue to give us reasons to believe that the best is yet to come.
Greetings,
