Triple play: Promoting neurovascular longevity with nicotinamide, WNT, and erythropoietin in diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Oxidative stress is a principal pathway for the dysfunction and ultimate destruction of cells in the neuronal and vascular systems for several disease entities, not promoting the ravages of oxidative stress to any less of a degree than diabetes mellitus. Diabetes mellitus is increasing in incidence as a result of changes in human behavior that relate to diet and daily exercise and is predicted to affect almost 400 million individuals worldwide in another two decades. Furthermore, both type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus can lead to significant disability in the nervous and cardiovascular systems, such as cognitive loss and cardiac insufficiency. As a result, innovative strategies that directly target oxidative stress to preserve neuronal and vascular longevity could offer viable therapeutic options to diabetic patients in addition to more conventional treatments that are designed to control serum glucose levels. Here we discuss the novel application of nicotinamide, Wnt signaling, and erythropoietin that modulate cellular oxidative stress and offer significant promise for the prevention of diabetic complications in the nervous and vascular systems. Essential to this process is the precise focus upon diverse as well as common cellular pathways governed by nicotinamide, Wnt signaling, and erythropoietin to outline not only the potential benefits, but also the challenges and possible detriments of these therapies. In this way, new avenues of investigation can hopefully bypass toxic complications, or at the very least, avoid contraindications that may limit care and offer both safe and robust clinical treatment for patients.