Type 1 patients lack Suppressor Of Glucose by Autophagy(SOGA), a protein that lowers blood glucose. SOGA is released when insulin is released and works by blocking the production of glycogen when food is being consumed. The protein begins to work when eating so excess glucose is not produced. This mechanism does not occur in diabetic patients.

In both type 1 and 2 patients the body overproduces the amount of glucose it actually needs. Every person produces this excess glucose to different degrees. SOGA is released at the same time as insulin, and it blocks the production of glucose from the liver when food is not being consumed, and kicks in when food is consumed. So the reason blood sugar goes so high after a meal is that patients are getting a double infusion of blood sugar, one from their own body's production and one coming from the food.

Investigators hope to develop a drug that works in case of blood sugar just like statins work in case of blood cholestrol. Similar to insulin, SOGA can't be ingested, so the drug would be a formulation designed to stimulate the body's own SOGA production. Investigators used mice for experiments and able to normalize their blood sugar within 4 days. Importantly, the same drug which increased SOGA had no effect for mice without diabetes. So there is potential SOGA could effectively lower blood sugar without causing hypoglycemia and that might eliminate the need for insulin entirely, at least in some people.

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