Molecular View of Diabetes Treatment and Management

2017 Video Challenge

Winners | Entries | Judges | Overview | Learning Resources

Note: Videos are intended for communication and not rigorous scientific review.

Congratulations to the 2017 Winners:

Judge's Award First Place
Insulin: From Bacteria To You

By Andrew Ma, George Song, and Anirudh Srikanth of West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South in Princeton Junction, NJ
Team Advisor: Matthew Foret

Judge's Award Second Place
Metformin and DPP 4 Inhibitors Take the DIE out of Type 2 Diabetes

By Julie Chaimowitz, Fiona Lu, Lori Mohs, and Amy Ni of East Brunswick High School, East Brunswick, NJ
Team Advisor: Louise Jasko

Judge's Award Third Place
Sugary Solutions: An In Depth Look at the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes

By Audrey Guo and Anna Shi of West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, Princeton Junction, NJ
Team Advisor: Meenakshi Bhattacharya

Viewer's Choice Award
Type 2 Diabetes: Meet It Beat It

By Kerwin Chen, Raisa Khuda, and Tasnuba Sukanna of Stuyvesant High School in New York, NY
Team Advisor: Gilbert Papagayo

2017 Challenge Details

In this video challenge, the focus is on pharmacological treatments available for type 1 and type 2 diabetes and the common side effects of these treatments. The PDB structures and resources pertaining to each subtopic are listed in the 2017 Video Challenge Featured Structures List.

Choose one from the following topics for your video:

Treatment of type 1 diabetes and insulin research: Type 1 diabetes can be managed through insulin treatment that has been perfected through research since early 20th century. The earliest therapies utilized insulin from livestock, which is similar enough to human insulin that it still works when injected. Today, recombinant human insulin is most widely used. In addition, researchers are engineering new insulins with better properties to tailor treatment to the needs of patients.
Treatment of type 2 diabetes: Several small hormones known as incretins (including GLP-1 and GIP) stimulate the beta cells in the pancreas to secrete insulin. These hormones are rapidly inactivated by an enzyme dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP4). To strengthen the production of insulin in type 2 diabetes patients, treatments include drugs that inhibit DPP4, or injections containing incretin analogs that can’t be inactivated by DPP4.
Another class of drugs to treat type 2 diabetes directly reduces the amount of glucose that enters the blood stream. Glucosidase inhibitors work on a series of enzymes preventing sugars from being fully digested to a form that can be absorbed into the blood stream.
Managing hypoglycemia, a common side-effects of diabetes treatments: The pharmacological treatments for both types of diabetes may cause blood glucose levels to fall to dangerously low levels. While eating or drinking something with glucose can easily treat this condition, there are times when this simple strategy can not be used. For example, if the individual is unconscious or non-responsive, a shot of glucagon may come to rescue.

2017 Video Challenge Dates

The video submission opened on March 7, 2017 and concluded on May 22, 2017. Award winners were announced at rcsb.org on June 13, 2017.

2017 Learning Resources

After you select your topic, choose at least one of the structures listed in the table below to help tell your story.

The Guide to Understanding the PDB Data is a helpful resource in understanding the protein structures better.

PDB ID	Brief Molecular Description	PDB Visualization Tips	Selected RCSB PDB Resources
Topic 1: Treatment of type 1 diabetes and insulin research
4ins	Pig insulin	Show biological assembly 1¹ 1 to display the monomer; use biological assembly 3 to show the hexamer	Insulin and Diabetes Poster Molecule of the Month on: Insulin Designer Insulins Insulin Receptor
2hiu	Recombinant human insulin	NMR Structure^2,; use one of the structures from the ensemble to show the monomer
1lph	Lispro (fast-acting insulin)	Use biological assembly 1¹ to display the monomer, and the biological assembly 3 to show the hexamer
4gbc	Aspart (fast-acting insulin)	Hide chains C and D in the assymetric unit to show the monomer, use biological assembly 1 to show the hexamer
4ajx	Degludec (long-acting insulin)
Topic 2: Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes
Incretins and DPP4
1nu8	DPP4 catalytic subunit		Molecule of the Month on: Dipeptidyl Peptidase 4 Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4 (DPP-4) as drug target from the Global Health section Sitagliptin: drug information and action from the Global Health section Non-insulin anti-diabetes medications from the Global Health section Slide 13 from the presentation Protein-Drug Complexes
1x70	DPP4 bound to Sitagliptin	Sitagliptin ligand ID: 715
1d0r	GLP-1 (an incretin)	NMR Structure², choose one structure from ensemble
2b4n	GIP (an incretin)	NMR Structure², choose one structure from ensemble
Glucosidase inhibitors
3l4w	Miglitol (MIG) bound to its target enzyme Human Maltase-Glucoamylase		Non-insulin anti-diabetes medications from the Global Health section
Topic 3: Managing hypoglycemia, a common side-effects of diabetes treatments
1gcn	Glucagon hormone		Molecule of the Month on Glucagon SBKB Featured System Article on Glucagon Receptor
4ers, 4l6r 3iol	Glucagon receptor: 4ers is the extracellular domain (bound to antibody fragment) 4l6r is the membrane-spanning portion 3iol is a glucagon-like-peptide bound to glucagon-like receptor	4ers: remove chain L and H as they are antibody fragment 4l6r: remove residues 1001 through 1106 (part of a protein produced through gene fusion) 3iol: chain A is the glucagon-like receptor, chain B is the glucagon-like peptide

2017 RCSB PDB Video Challenge for High School Students