RESEARCHERS from Monash University have taken part in a project which found evolutionary changes of insulin regulation in the platypus and the echidna could pave the way for new treatments for type 2 diabetes in humans.
The findings were published in the Scientific Reports journal, and showed the same hormone produced in the gut of the platypus to regulate blood glucose is also in the monotremes' venom.
Changes in the hormone GLP-1 evolved in the native animals make it resistant to the rapid degradation usually seen in humans.
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