A New Road For Treating The Vascular Complications Of Diabetes: So Let'S Step On The Gas

The authors van den Born et al. (1) have written a timely Perspective in this issue of Diabetes . Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes have reached epidemic proportions throughout the world, afflicting over 400 million people. Moreover, the number of individuals that will develop diabetes is predicted to rise (2). Both individuals with type 1 and type 2 diabetes are at a significantly greater risk for developing microvascular and macrovascular diseases. People with diabetes who cannot maintain adequate glycemic control (such as the failure to reach the recommended target level of HbA1c u003c7%) are predisposed to develop neuropathy, retinopathy, nephropathy, cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, and premature death. In response to the enormity of this medical problem, there have been major initiatives on the part of global health organizations, national diabetes associations, and primary caregivers to educate patients about the benefits of appropriate nutrition and physical activity. For individuals with diabetes who have insufficient appropriate nutrition and physical activity, an increasing number of oral and injectable interventions are available to improve glycemic control (3,4). For many patients, however, the current forms of therapy now used for treating both types of diabetes are inadequate.Thus, there clearly remains a large area of unmet therapeutic need for novel pharmacological interventions that target the major complications of diabetes. Such therapies need to be identified and developed with greater efficiency by exploiting innovative molecular targets. In the current Perspective, van den Born et al. (1) present interesting data suggesting that the modulation of one or more of the three major gasotransmitters (nitric oxide [NO], carbon monoxide [CO], and hydrogen sulfide [H2S]) could eventually offer a novel therapeutic option(s) targeting the vascular complications …