Canadian Scientist Drucker Wins International Award for Diabetes Research

Toronto — Dr. Daniel Drucker did not expect his decades of groundbreaking research on gut hormones to receive much attention in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Endocrinologists and senior scientists from Sinai Health, who were named winners of the 2021 Canada Gairdner International Awards on Wednesday, made him famous when the pandemic first closed his lab in March last year. And focused on obesity treatment.

But Shortly thereafter, a large number of calls from scientists who wanted to know if one of the enzymes he had studied for many years, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4), acts as a SARS-CoV-2 receptor. And emails have begun to flood. The virus invades cells as it does with other coronaviruses such as MERS.

If so, is it possible to treat diabetes, which he helped develop treatments for COVID patients?

Drucker, a professor at the University of Toronto School of Medicine, discovered that DPP4 did not function as a COVID receptor, but the link between COVID and diabetes became non-negligible.

“People with obesity and diabetes were among the most ill in COVID-19, their need for intensive care was greater and their mortality was greater,” Drucker said on Wednesday. Told.

“So there was the dynamics of this constant question surrounding my area of ​​research, but it was directly related to COVID-19 and gradually became more involved in the work of COVID-19 diabetes.”

Drucker’s early work, which revolutionized the treatment of type 2 diabetes, obesity and intestinal disorders, was awarded the Canada Gairdner Award with colleagues at Harvard University, Joel Havener and Jens Horst at the University of Copenhagen.

The trio has been recognized for the past 40 years in an independent collaborative study of glucagon-like peptides, an intestinal hormone that helps control blood sugar levels. Their work ultimately led to the creation of several new classes of drugs that have been used to treat more than 100 million people worldwide.

Drucker said he was “ecstatic, grateful and honored” to receive an award from the Gairdner Foundation, which recognizes major medical research around the world each year.

The Foundation awards 395 awards to scientists in 35 countries, with about a quarter of those winners later Received the Nobel Prize.

Drucker described the award-winning work as “the decades of basic science that led to new therapies.”

“But it’s always a pleasure and a privilege to be recognized for the work my students have done and the work I have done,” he added.

Recently, Drucker has been obsessed with researching the link between COVID, diabetes and obesity, writing treatises, and giving lectures throughout the pandemic.

Diabetes does not increase the likelihood that anyone will get a COVID infection, but Drucker said it would make them more susceptible to serious consequences. According to data from hospitals in New York City from March 1st to April 4th, 2020, 33.8% of COVID patients were diabetic and 41.7% were obese.

On the other hand, early reports from China show that the probability of in-hospital death from COVID-19 in diabetics is “2.85 times higher” in diabetics than in non-diabetics.

Recently, scientists have argued that COVID can also lead to the development of new diabetes, and are watching the increase in diabetes diagnosis in people who have recovered from the virus.

Drucker said it was difficult to know for sure whether the cause was a COVID-19 infection, adding that endocrinologists and researchers would. Look carefully over the next few years.

But over the last 15 months, I’ve learned a lot about diabetes and obesity. Patients with type 1 diabetes have a lower risk of severe COVID disease than patients with type 2 diabetes, Ducker said.

This may be because type 1 diabetes, formerly known as juvenile-onset diabetes, tends to affect young people, Drucker said. Type 2, on the other hand, generally afflicts older people who are more likely to suffer from other conditions that can exacerbate the infection, such as obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and vascular damage.

However, Drucker added that poorly managed people with diabetes, regardless of type, are at higher risk of serious COVID. Control Their blood sugar level.

Drucker said most countries have recognized a link between COVID and diabetes and are pleased to put diabetics and obese people in the vaccination queue.

However, he said diabetics need special attention until vaccination can effectively end the threat of COVID.

“The message looks like this: Do everything you can to optimize your health,” Drucker said. “Manage your diet, exercise well, and control your blood sugar as much as possible.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on April 7, 2021.

Melissa Couto Zuber, The Canadian Press