What blind cave fish and poisonous snails can tell us about diabetes
Research on insulin, blood sugar and diabetes in other animals such as fish and dogs has already saved millions of lives and could lead to new treatments for type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
This video is part of “Innovations in: Type 1 Diabetes“, an editorially independent special report produced with financial support from Vertex.
Tom Lam: Why do we care so much about studying diabetes in random animals? Sometimes it seems that scientists are the same…
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[Lum spins around, pretending to play a game similar to pin the tail on the donkey]
Lam: Okay, okay, let's see, and – whoop!
[Lum lands on a note that says “blind cave fish”]
Lum: [Shrugs] Why not?
So is it really that important? Yes! [Pauses] Yes, sorry, I have to explain.
People have known about diabetes for a very long time. There are records from all over the world going back thousands of years.
But until the 1900s, we didn't really know what was going on, and often the disease was simply a death sentence.
We now know that diabetes occurs when the sugar that travels through the bloodstream to provide energy to the body fails to connect with the body's receptors to do the job. This is because we need insulin to make this connection. And in the case of diabetes, the body either does not produce enough or does not use it properly.
So what does all this have to do with blind cave fish or snails?
Well, here's what to remember: converting sugar into energy is a really fundamental thing. This is what the famous powerhouse of the cell does! Therefore, delivering this sugar to the cells that need it is equally important.
So while you or I may have heard the word “insulin” used as a medicine in humans, the chemical insulin or a similar insulin-like chemical is found in almost every animal.
Thus, many animals, including regular pets, can also develop diabetes. In fact, the reason scientists know that diabetes can be treated with insulin is because of studies on diabetic dogs. They were able to isolate insulin from healthy dogs and administer it to diabetic dogs.
This research was subsequently awarded the Nobel Prize, and also firmly established dogs as “man’s best friend.”
Animals less like us have developed other strange ways of using insulin. For example, the common cone snail uses insulin in its venom to poison fish. And researchers are still studying this venom because we might learn something from it that could improve insulin treatment for humans.
Even this blind cave fish, because it lives in a cave, has an erratic feeding schedule and has huge spikes in its blood sugar levels. But it doesn't seem to have any negative consequences, so we might be able to learn something from it.
Studying diabetes in animals is not just something could save lives. It has already saved and is currently saving countless lives. So who knows what these other animals can teach us?
[Lum speaks to an image of a cone snail]
Lum: Perhaps one day you will become man's best friend. I think you're pretty cute.
[Lum touches the snail]
Lam: Oh! Ha, that's… Hey guys, snail venom is only poisonous to fish or…
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