Protein Aggregation: A New Challenge in Type-II Diabetes

From many decades, researchers have been aware of the formation of insoluble protein aggregates in many neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases [1] but there are some reports which showed the presence of insoluble amyloid deposits in diabetes mellitus type 2. Diabetes is a very common but a serious chronic disease in which either body can’t produce enough insulin (Type-I Diabetes) or doesn’t properly use the insulin it produces (Type-II Diabetes) [2]. According to WHO report (2014), about 422 million people over the age of 18 were suffering from diabetes throughout the world [3] out of which type-II diabetes accounts for the vast majority of people around the world [2]. A common pathology shared among type II diabetic patients is the accumulation of islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP, also known as amylin) in an insoluble fibrillar form in the pancreas [4]. Similar accumulations of misfolded amyloid proteins have also been found to be characteristic of other diseases that strike primarily late in life, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s diseases [1]. Self aggregation of human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP) is associated with the development of type-II diabetes by the disturbance of cellular homeostasis in islet cells through the formation of oligomers [5,6]. Discussion