University of Kansas researchers want to eliminate the painful sensations in the arms and legs of lifelong diabetes patients. A better understanding of diabetic peripheral neuropathy, the complication that causes such sensations, is the first step toward elimination. Researchers in KU's department of pharmacology and toxicology are taking that step.
Rick T. Dobrowsky, who has a doctorate in philosophy from North Carolina State University, is a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at KU. He researches neuropathy every weekday on the fifth floor of Malott Hall, where the department of pharmacology and toxicology is located. He began the project in the fall of 2000, when he first received funding from the American Diabetes Association and the National Institutes of Health. Dobrowsky would not reveal the amount of money needed but said that he must go through the funding application process each year to continue the research. He says his desire to better understand neuropathy has kept the project going.
“My expertise, nerve function, goes right along with my research,” Dobrowsky said. “I have a long standing interest not just in neurons, but in diabetes, as well. I want to learn all that I can about neuropathy.”
According to the ADA, about 20 million people in the U.S., almost 8 percent of the nation’s population, have diabetes. Nearly one-third of this number is unaware that they have the disease. The ADA says that the majority of Americans with diabetes have Type 2 diabetes, where the patients have an insulin deficiency that blocks glucose from entering and fueling cells in their body. Dobrowsky says that almost half of all Americans with diabetes develop diabetic neuropathy and that it is more common in those who have had the disease for a number of years. Peripheral neuropathy, the focus of Dobrowsky’s research, is one of two major types of nerve damage that those with prolonged diabetes experience. Because the peripheral nerves start from the spinal cord and run through the arms and legs, one with neuropathy feels a painful burning in the fingers and toes.
Francisco Vasquez, a graduate student with a bachelor’s degree in biology from California State Polytechnic University, came to KU in 2005 to work with Dobrowsky on the neuropathy research. Right now, Vasquez is focusing his research on Schwann cell degeneration, a neutrophic effect in peripheral neuropathy. Vasquez says that he thinks the research could be very beneficial.
“People with diabetes eventually get that ‘funny bone’ feeling in their arms and legs,” Vasquez said. “But, the feeling is not so funny. It’s very painful, one of the more painful things that patients have to experience. Our research has not found any cures, but we’re definitely moving in that direction.”
Dobrowsky says that though he is passionate about the project, he also knows that discovering a cure for neuropathy is not going to happen right away, if at all.
“There are numerous metabolic causes for neuropathy that cannot be linked to just one protein or one gene like other complications,” Dobrowsky said. “We are trying to identify certain biochemicals involved with neuropathy, but because of all the nerves and cells related to the disease, focusing our research is nearly impossible.”
Before any medicine can be used, it must get approval from the Food and Drug Administration. A proposed medicine goes through a series of clinical trials that prove the drug’s effectiveness in treating the disease, not just its symptoms. Vasquez says that numerous drugs related to neuropathy are going through clinical trials but that none have been approved yet.
Cui-Juan Yu, who has a doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology from The Fourth Military Medical University in Xi’an, China, is the third member of Dobrowsky’s research team. She came to KU in November 2003 and works as a research associate in the department of pharmacology and toxicology. After attending two different universities in China, from 1991 to summer of 2003, Yu said she enjoys the current project with Dobrowsky.
“I think that Dr. Dobrowsky is obviously very intelligent,” Yu said. “More than that, though, is his passion. He really wants to better understand neuropathy so that those who have to suffer from it can be better treated. His passion inspires me in my work, as I’m sure it does for Francisco.”
Dobrowsky says that maintaining the funding each year is the biggest challenge. He says that when he originally applied for funds, the process of appeals and changes made to the application by the ADA and NIH was supposed to last only six months. He says it took an entire year, instead. Dobrowsky says that his work is not complete.
“Our goal is to better understand a serious disease and what it will take to fight it,” Dobrowsky said. “We are going to go on with this research for as long as we can win funding.”