Role of Macrophage MCT1 in Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy

Dr. Morrison’s team will study whether treatments directed to macrophages can be developed to treat peripheral neuropathies. He says that his team has already learned that altering the metabolic transporter, MCT1, in macrophages impacts the speed of recovery following peripheral nerve injury.

“In the current proposal, we will study whether varying MCT1 expression in macrophages impact mouse models of diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Macrophage MCT1 will be altered both by transgenic mice engineered to have low or high expression of MCT1 and lipid nanoparticles that target macrophages and upregulate MCT1. These genetically and pharmacologically modified mice will be assessed for the development of peripheral neuropathy in commonly studied mouse models of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes,” says Dr. Morrison.

Their goal is to determine whether macrophage MCT1 plays a role in diabetic peripheral neuropathy and whether lipid nanoparticles can target this molecule and either prevent neuropathy from occurring or accelerate its recovery.