One hundred years ago: the dawning of the insulin era

Abstract

The dawn of the insulin era can be placed in 1921, when Banting and Best started their experiments which led, a year later, to the successful treatment of diabetes. They were preceded by the discoveries of the pancreatic cause of diabetes by Minkowski and von Mering in 1889 and of the islets by Paul Langerhans in 1869. The achievement of the first targeted treatment in medical history was a landmark of medical progress. However, it was accompanied by a mixture of human greatness and misery. Genius and recklessness, ambition and deception, camaraderie and rivalry, selflessness and pursuit of glory went along with superficial search of the existing literature, poor planning, faulty interpretation of results, failure to reproduce them, and misquoting of reports from other laboratories. Then as now, such faults surface whenever human nature aims to push forward the boundaries of knowledge and pose a real challenge in today's world, as the scientific method strives to keep healthy in the face of growing anti-scientific feelings.

Identification of Novel Biomarker for Early Detection of Diabetic Nephropathy

“…From the clinical perspective, biomarkers have a substantial impact on the care of patients who are suspected to have disease, or those who have or have no apparent disease [ 15 ]. Currently, biomarkers are applied at a molecular level such as genes, proteins, metabolites, glycans, and other molecules, which can be used for diagnosis of diseases, prognosis, prediction of therapeutic responses, as well as therapeutic development for many diseases [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ].…”

Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy: Current Treatment

“…Additionally, it is conceivable that, if TTS, pathophysiologically speaking, is linked to coronary vasospasm [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 7 ], nitroglycerine, organic nitrates, or calcium-blockers may be considered as appropriate therapies. Finally, if TTS is considered as a subtype of CAD or AMI [ 4 ], with underlying pathohistological features of “stunned myocardium/reperfusion injury”, therapies designed for AMI, should be considered management approaches deserving evaluation [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ].…”

“…Other plausible pathophysiologic scenarios include epicardial coronary artery spasm involving many vessels or coronary branches (i.e., some form of relatively prolonged Prinzmetal’s angina) [ 7 ], coronary microvascular spasm, endothelial dysfunction, or some phenotype of coronary artery disease (CAD), any combination of the above, or in association with other mechanisms, leading to stunning/reperfusion myocardial injury, not unlike the one encountered in CAD-related ischemic injury (acute coronary syndromes [ACS], or acute myocardial infarction [AMI]) [ 4 ]. According to the latter pathophysiologic pathway, one should view with tolerance and consider the testing and/or employment of therapies designed for CAD/ACS/AMI, in the management of acute TTS [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ].…”

Pathophysiologic Approach to Type 2 Diabetes Management: One Centre Experience 1980–2020

“…Taking into account the dawning observations of Paul Langerhans (1847-1888) [102], Oskar Minkowski (1858-1931) [103], George Ludwig Zülzer (1870-1949) [104], Ernest Lyman Scott ((1877-1966) [105] and others in [106,107] [75] Lingvay I., Catarig AM, Frias P, et al Efficacy and safety of once-weekly semaglutide versus daily canagliflozin as add-on to metformin in patients with type 2 diabetes (SUSTAIN 8): a doubleblind, phase 3b, randomised controlled trial. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol 2019;7(11): 834-844.…”