Will we ever cure diabetes?

摘要

Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is a chronic metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglyce-mia due to an imbalance between insulin requirement and insulin production. T2DM is one of the most prevalent noncommu-nicable diseases claiming millions of victims around the world. The International Diabetes Federation defines diabetes as a "huge and growing problem": the total number of people with diabetes in 2013 worldwide is approximately 382 million, more than 5 million people die for diabetes and many more suffer from diabetes related complications [l]. It is therefore worrisome that the pandemic of T2DM is so far from stopping: the global prevalence of T2DM is expected to rise from 8.3% to 10.1% by 2035 with approximately three new cases every 10 seconds, or almost 10 million per year. Even if with some differences, this trend is almost the same independently from regions, with no country showing a reversal trend.