When we get diagnosed with diabetes, or even pre-diabetes, our bodies produce insufficient insulin, which is a very important hormone that helps take the glucose (sugar) we get from food and use it as energy. The cells that produce insulin are our beta cells, which do not reproduce easily. They actually get exhausted over time, die out, and lose their function. This is how we end up with a diabetic health condition. Beta cells and their growth are controlled by a protein called menin.
Nature has shown us the importance of menin and how the body decreases menin to rebalance the pool of beta cells and help the prevention of diabetes. This occurs during pregnancy, when the hormone prolactin is used to downregulate menin, which in turn results in the increase of beta cells in the pancreas of the pregnant woman and leads to improved sugar control for the mother and the growing baby. With decreased menin, these beta cells can then regenerate, supporting the notion that the inhibition of menin with a targeted agent potentially could lead to the reactivation, regeneration, and even protection of beta cells.
We believe that inhibiting menin with our investigational agent BMF-219 has the potential to cause a similar outcome. BMF-219 was designed to specifically target menin and inhibit/degrade its function for a short period of time, so beta cells can potentially grow again, rebalance, and thereby effectively restore our natural insulin production. This heightened production of insulin then controls and normalizes sugar levels.
