In the News.. Oral GLP-1s, diagnosing type 2 by voice?! Tzield update, vegan diet for T1D, and more!

It's In the News, a look at the top stories and headlines from the diabetes community happening now. Top stories this week: new studies on the safety and efficacy of what's called the pill form of drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro, a new study says it may be possible to diagnose a person with type 2 just by recoding their voice, the latest on Tzield, the only drug shown to stave off type 1 for any length of time, how a vegan diet impacts people with T1D, one of the team who discovered insulin gets a long-due honor, and more!   Find out more about Moms' Night Out  Please visit our Sponsors & Partners - they help make the show possible! Take Control with Afrezza  Omnipod - Simplify Life Learn about Dexcom  Edgepark Medical Supplies Check out VIVI Cap to protect your insulin from extreme temperatures Learn more about AG1 from Athletic Greens  Drive research that matters through the T1D Exchange The best way to keep up with Stacey and the show is by signing up for our weekly newsletter: Sign up for our newsletter here Here's where to find us: Facebook (Group) Facebook (Page) Instagram Twitter Check out Stacey's books! Learn more about everything at our home page www.diabetes-connections.com  Reach out with questions or comments: [email protected] Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I'm Stacey Simms and these are the top diabetes stories and headlines happening now XX In the news is brought to you by Edgepark simplify your diabetes journey with Edgepark XX The next step in GLP-1 research is focusing on oral medications. new study looking at two different versions danuglipron dag-NEW-la-pron and orforglipron ah-for-GLOO-pron The primary examined outcome consisted of how different the absolute changes in the percentage of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) from baseline were between the treatment and control groups. Secondary outcomes included endpoint differences in body weight, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), systolic and diastolic blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), and heart rate between the treatment and control groups when absolute changes from baseline values were measured. The preliminary findings indicated that the orally administered small molecule GLP-1RAs danuglipron twice daily from Pfizer and orforglipron once a day from Lilly were effective in weight reduction and glycemic control in individuals with type 1 diabetes, obesity, or both. As compared to the controls, the novel small molecule GLP-1RAs not only resulted in a significant lowering of HbA1c levels in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus but in patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes, danuglipron and orforglipron also brought about significant weight reduction. While the safety profiles indicated that the orally administered danuglipron and orforglipron did not increase the odds of serious adverse reactions or hypoglycemic events, the odds of adverse gastrointestinal events such as diarrhea, nausea, constipation, and vomiting were higher. These adverse gastrointestinal events were also linked to higher odds of treatment discontinuation. Further, longitudinal studies are required to understand these treatment options' long-term efficacy, tolerability, and safety. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20231017/Oral-diabetes-and-obesity-meds-danuglipron-and-orforglipron-show-promise-but-have-gastrointestinal-drawbacks.aspx XX More news about Tzield to slow type 1 progression in newly diagnosed children and adolescents. Data from the Phase III PROTECT clinical trial, presented at the 2023 Annual ISPAD Conference, showed that superior beta cell preservation was observed compared to placebo. On average, patients administered with TZIELD required numerically fewer insulin units and had numerically higher time in range, compared to those on placebo. HbA1c reductions and the overall rates of clinically important hypoglycemic events were similar among both study groups. TZIELD is the first and only disease modifying therapy in type 1 diabetes An observational extension study following participants for a further 42 months is ongoing. Release of the PROTECT trial data follows the company's acquisition of Provention Bio (a Sanofi Company) in April 2023 and therefore represents a key milestone for Sanofi. https://www.europeanpharmaceuticalreview.com/news/187735/sanofi-treatment-could-slow-type-1-diabetes-progression/ XX Lots of speculation about what the growing popularity of new diabetes drugs will do to the device market. Abbott says they're doing just fine.. and that the treatments could end up boosting sales of the medical device maker. Shares have dropped with concerns that GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro could hurt CGM sales. Abbott says their sales are actually up this year. Now, grain of salt, because this is press release info.. but it's worth noting that the device market is very important to people who use pump systems of course. Most diabetes device analysts do seem to agree with Abbott here. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/abbott-beats-profit-estimates-strong-sales-devices-diagnostics-2023-10-18/XX -- XX Could a 10-second smartphone voice recording diagnose type 2? This is something else.. biotech firm Klick Labs testing 267 people who had already been diagnosed as being either non-diabetic (192 people) or type 2 diabetic (75 people). Each person was asked to record a specific spoken phrase on their own smartphone via an app, up to six times a day for two weeks. Depending on the speed at which each individual spoke, those recordings were six to 10 seconds long. When 14 acoustic features of the resulting 18,465 recordings were analyzed, it was found that several of those features – such as pitch and intensity – differed in a consistent manner between the diabetic and non-diabetic participants. Although these differences couldn't be detected by the human ear, they could be picked up by signal processing software. This finding suggests that developing type 2 diabetes causes subtle changes in a person's voice. With that theory in mind, the scientists created an AI-based program that analyzes voice recordings along with patient information such as age, sex, height and weight. When tested on the volunteers, that program proved to be 89% accurate at identifying type 2 diabetic women and 86% accurate at spotting diabetic men. Those numbers should improve as the technology is refined. For reference, the team found that traditional fasting blood glucose tests were 85% accurate for both sexes, while glycated hemoglobin and oral glucose tolerance tests were 91% and 92% accurate, respectively. https://newatlas.com/medical/10-second-voice-test-type-2-diabetes/ XX Ultrasound may prove a new treatment for type 2 diabetes.. GE HealthCare Technologies is teaming up with Novo Nordisk on peripheral focused ultrasound, a new technology with potential to regulate metabolic function–without drugs, GE HealthCare said in a release. Early-stage clinical research suggests this type of ultrasound can affect diabetes patients' glucose metabolism by stimulating nerve pathways, the company said. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ge-healthcare-teams-up-with-novo-nordisk-to-treat-diabetes-without-drugs-7b679c3e XX New research on diet and type 1 diabetes.. looking at plant based & moderate carb diets. I'll link up the full results but the upshot here is that portion control, moderate carb, and vegan all worked very well – when you've got a dietitian helping you make individual choices. The Vegan diet in particular is interesting, but it was not low carb – some people actually ate more carbs than usual – up to 300 a day – but the fat levels were very low. This group's insulin sensitivity went was up, and they lost on average 11 pounds. A1C decrease was about the same in all the groups. "It's important to have different types of diets that fit with different individuals https://diatribe.org/type-1-diabetes-new-studies-vegan-and-moderate-carbohydrate-diets-type-1-diabetes XX Improving health insurance coverage is not enough to address existing racial and ethnic disparities in glycemic control among US adults with diabetes. This was a large study by researchers at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. A cross-sectional analysis of more than 4000 US adults with elevated HbA1c, results of the study suggest Hispanic or Latino and non-Hispanic Black individuals were more likely to have poor glycemic control relative to their non-Hispanic White counterparts despite access to care, with investigators noting social, health care, and behavioral or health factors did little to attenuate these apparent disparities. "Future studies should apply causal frameworks to evaluate the role of other structural barriers contributing to the high burden of poor control among insured Hispanic or Latino and non-Hispanic Black individuals to develop effective interventions," investigators concluded.1 https://www.hcplive.com/view/racial-disparities-in-diabetes-management-go-beyond-insurance-status-study-finds XX Commercial – Edgepark XX A scientist who helped discover insulin a century ago has been honoured with a memorial in Aberdeen. John JR Macleod was awarded the Nobel prize for his part in the ground-breaking project – one of the most significant advancements in medical science. However, the physiologist's achievements were largely unknown. Now he has been celebrated in his home city with the unveiling of a new life-sized bronze sculpture. https://news.stv.tv/north/aberdeen-memorial-for-scientist-john-jr-macleod-who-co-discovered-insulin-unveiled-at-duthie-park XX If you watch the Food Network's Halloween Cookie Challenge – you can root for the diabetes mom. Chelsea Fullmer's son lives with type 1. The Food Network says she is a mother, entrepreneur, and passionate baker with her own Central Texas baking business, "Pink Lemon Cookies." Tune in Monday evening https://shoptherock.com/round-rock-baker-rises-to-the-occasion-on-food-networks-halloween-cookie-challenge/?fbclid=IwAR3S8vA8JkbtUkVhjg1L6L9CFBIP4v_Nf-p9hWn0VUvFh5RHjDlIy8-YvYo -- Next week I'm talking to Ryan Reed, NASCAR Xfinity driver with type 1 about what got him back behind the wheel. And our last long format episode was all about Dexcom U and student athletes with T1D. Join us again soon!