Prospects of using pancragen for correction of metabolic disorders in elderly people.

Korkushko OV, Khavinson VKh, Shatilo VB, Antonyk-Sheglova IA, Bondarenko EV. Bull Exp Biol Med. 2011.

Organ: liver-metabolic · Type: clinical · Peptides: Pancragen

In 33 elderly patients with type 2 diabetes, the authors report that pancragen lowered fasting and OGTT glucose, insulin, and an insulin-resistance index; 30 healthy elderly comparators had higher nocturnal melatonin — not an RCT in the PubMed record.

Editorial summary of a 2011 original article in Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine. Elderly metabolic series. Public pages cite PubMed only. Read the paper: PMID 22448364.

Methods

Two groups of older persons: 30 healthy and 33 with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The authors measured nocturnal melatonin production and, in the diabetes group, carbohydrate-metabolism indices with or without the tetrapeptide pancragen. PubMed indexes the paper as a journal article, not as a randomized controlled trial. The English abstract does not give dose, duration, or allocation. Those details belong in the primary text.

Findings

Nocturnal melatonin production was reported about 70% lower in patients with type 2 diabetes than in healthy individuals of corresponding age. In patients with diabetes, pancragen significantly decreased fasting glucose, glucose in a standard tolerance test, plasma insulin, and an insulin-resistance index. Patients who did not receive pancragen showed no changes in those carbohydrate-metabolism indices. The authors interpret pineal melatonin-producing insufficiency as contributing to insulin resistance in the elderly and call pancragen a promising approach to correcting that resistance.

This is one short clinical communication. It is not a large diabetes trial and not a product claim. Follow the PMID.