Could A Muscle Relaxant Cure Diabetes?

Could muscle relaxants help a rare form of diabetes? Recent findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) have found Wolfram, a very difficult form of diabetes to treat, is responsible for cell death that harms insulin levels.

Yet researchers at Washington University's School of Medicine have discovered that the common muscle relaxant, dantrolene, could help prevent death of insulin producing cells and control this debilitating disease.

Animal and cell studies helped researchers find that by controlling the enzyme Calpain, they can work to prevent this rare form of diabetes.

"We also found that dantrolene was not toxic to cells grown from the skin samples donated by patients' relatives. The drug interfered with cell death in cells from Wolfram patients but did not harm cells that came from parents and siblings," said senior study author said senior investigator Fumihiko Urano, in a news release.

The drug is FDA-approved and is currently prescribed for other serious health conditions, including cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis (MS).

"We'd like to test the drug first in adult patients with Wolfram syndrome, and if we get positive results, we could extend the trial to children," Urano concluded.