Kanpur: Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur have identified a molecular pathway through which immune cells in the pancreas can suppress insulin secretion within minutes, offering a new direction for research into obesity and type 2 diabetes.
The study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, found that pancreatic immune cells called macrophages can directly communicate with insulin-producing beta cells and reduce insulin release. The researchers also confirmed that the same pathway is active in human pancreatic tissue, making it a potential target for future drug development.
“The understanding till now was that obesity triggers low grade inflammation which damages beta cells slowly, over months and years. The IIT Kanpur research has revealed a much faster and more direct exchange of signals,” researchers explained
To identify the mechanism, researchers used a precision genetic technique that allowed them to switch a single signalling pathway on or off inside immune cells.
Activating this pathway in macrophages caused a sharp reduction in insulin release in mouse models. Conversely, switching the same pathway off had the opposite effect, with insulin secretion improving.
The study was jointly led by Simran Singh and Ashish Kumar, who are the co-first authors of the research, under the supervision of Dr. Sai Prasad Pydi at the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, IIT Kanpur.
Dr. Sai Prasad Pydi, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering at IIT Kanpur said, “We discovered that immune cells that are present next to beta cells can switch off insulin release within minutes. And they do it without giving any of the classical inflammation signals we have been studying for decades. The findings change our fundamental understanding of how immune cells influence insulin production. The effect is not slow damage from inflammation but instruction that is delivered in minutes. The fact that this works the same way in human tissue is what makes it exciting, It is not just a finding in tissues of laboratory mice, but a real biological circuit that could be targeted with a drug.”
