Ethnopharmacology and Molecular Biology of Diabetes Mellitus
Saturday 27 December 2008, by
The identification, evaluation and recognition of the value of traditional therapy for non-communicable diseases in Cameroon is being acknowledged. This would provide a system and a framework in which effective herbal preparations could be made available to the increasing population who are now in absolute need. Plant materials indicated anti-diabetic, anti-hypertensive, anti-asthmatic, anti-epileptic (used in the traditional treatment of non-communicable diseases) from ethnobotanical investigations, are being collected and extracted with different solvent systems. The pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties as well as the toxicity effects of these extracts are now being carried out on laboratory animal models. Extracts with promising activities will be considered for clinical studies using standardised methods and following the instructions of the Cameroon Ethical Committee.
The molecular exploration of the possible defect in the various functional and molecular parameters involved in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance in Cameroonian patients such as insulin binding, insulin-induced insulin receptor kinase activity, insulin-mediated glucose uptake and the expression of specific glucose transporters (GLUT4) genes, will be studied. This will help to elucidate the involvement and the complex interplay between functional, metabolic and molecular factors in the development of the defect in insulin action in the Bantu race of Black Africans. It will also lead to new avenues in the differential diagnosis, therapy and novel pharmaceutical regimens of insulin resistance and the associated diseases in Cameroon and other sub-Sahara African countries.
On the other hand, the genetic susceptibility to type 1 diabetes in the Cameroon population by using molecular typing (HLA typing and sub-typing) is being studied. This information will give an estimate of the prevalence of patients affected by type 1 diabetes in Cameroon; and also help to estimate the health burden due to type 1 diabetes in Cameroon.
- Ethnopharmacology and Molecular Biology of Diabetes Mellitus
The identification, evaluation and recognition of the value of traditional therapy for non-communicable diseases in Cameroon is being (...) - Non-communicable diseases and poverty project (2000-2001)
The burden of many non-communicable diseases (NCD), particularly cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and lung cancer, tends to increase with (...) - Action on Non-communicable Diseases in sub-Sahara Africa (ANSA)
This is an ongoing project in which we are using the same sites like those of CENHIP. The two goals of ANSA are: to develop, evaluate, (...) - Cameroon Essential Non-communicable Diseases Health Intervention Project (CENHIP)
This project was concerned with the improvement of health care, in particular the development of practical treatment guidelines, and the (...) - The European Union Nutritional Project
The study on nutritional influences on the emergence of hypertension and diabetes in Afro-populations of Cameroon, Jamaica, Paris, France and (...)
