Nutritionals
Safer and more effective nutritional products from nature’s innovation
Glycemic Control (ABA)
Why ABA?
- The naturally occurring Abscisic Acid (ABA) maintains healthy blood sugar levels.
What is ABA?
- ABA is a hormone originally identified in plants that is naturally produced in humans and found in regular foods/diets. ABA regulates inflammation and blood glucose levels.
ABA Discoveries
- ABA promotes glucose normalization in mouse models of disease.
- Dietary ABA improves insulin sensitivity and reduces inflammation in white adipose tissue.
- High glucose levels activate endogenous ABA production from pancreatic beta cells which stimulates glucose consumption by adipocytes and myoblasts
- A single dose of ABA (extract) at approximately 1 ug/kg body weight lowered glycemia during a glucose tolerance test (GTT) study in human subjects
ABA Levels in Common Foods
Innovative Pathway - LANCL2
- ABA binds to lanthionine synthetase C-like 2 (LANCL2) and signals through Akt/mTORC2.
- Exerts anti-diabetic actions by up-regulating glucose transporter Glut4.
Significance
ABA regulates glycemia
ABA is uniquely positioned as an active food ingredient for glycemic control.
ABA is natural
ABA is safe for human consumption, found in regular diets, and has no known side effects.
ABA is effective
Supplementation of ABA has improved/maintained glycemic control in mice, rats and humans at a low dose.
Major Health Problem
Metabolic Syndrome, Diabetes and Prediabetes 
- It is estimated that 34% of adults in the U.S. have metabolic syndrome.
- About 28.3 million Americans have type 2 diabetes (T2D) and over 20% of middle-aged adults have prediabetes.
- The total direct and indirect costs attributable to T2D in the United States is over $132 billion.
- As the rates of obesity and T2D in the U.S. continue to rise, an increasingly large number of people are becoming reliant on expensive oral anti-diabetic drugs with demonstrated adverse side effect.
Take Away:
Despite this growing problem, pharmaceutical manufacturers have been unable to develop medications that are safe and highly effective. Additionally, there is an unmet need for medications targeting prediabetes.
BTI Solution
ABA GRAS Food Ingredient
- ABA is an innovative health food ingredient that fills an unmet clinical need for the nutritional management of glycemic control.
- ABA is a safe alternative to current treatments for addressing glycemic control.
- ABA has numerous health benefits in diabetes and inflammation, and it was recently demonstrated that ABA is produced and released in brain tissue and may play a role in depression.
Definitions
Metabolic Syndrome: A grouping of biochemical and physiological risk factors – high blood pressure, high blood sugar, unhealthy cholesterol levels and obesity.
Prediabetes: A condition in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be classified as diabetes.
Type 2 Diabetes: A metabolic disease in which the body does not properly process glucose due to inadequate insulin production and/or the body’s cells lack of response to insulin. This results in high blood glucose.
