Certain bats have no health issues with sugar. Can bats teach us about diabetes?
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
We humans have to be careful about how much sugar we consume. Too much, and it could trigger serious health problems, but there are types of bats that easily gobble down lots of sugar, no problem, and that has scientists wondering - what could bats teach us about treating diseases like diabetes? Science reporter Ari Daniel went to northern Belize to track down a researcher who's looking into this very question.
ARI DANIEL, BYLINE: At 2 a.m., it's pitch black. I'm on the edge of a forested area, looking for a big, screened-in tent. Eventually, I find it.
(SOUNDBITE OF UNZIPPING TENT DOOR)
DANIEL: I walk in and see Jasmin Camacho.
I didn't miss anything?
JASMIN CAMACHO: No, you didn't miss anything at all.
DANIEL: Look at that.
CAMACHO: That was our first...
DANIEL: Camacho is an evolutionary biologist at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research. She's holding a bat that was caught earlier in the evening. He feeds entirely on nectar.
CAMACHO: These are basically hummingbirds of the night, drinking floral nectar. Evolution has shaped them just to enjoy all the sweets.
DANIEL: Camacho feeds the bat some sugar water, and he licks it right up.
Look at that long tongue.
CAMACHO: (Laughter) Oh, you got it all.
DANIEL: But this is just a drop in the bucket for this bat. You can think of bats as little superheroes, each with their own special superpower. This nectar feeder is no exception.
CAMACHO: Their biology is so extreme. They'll go around foraging, like, up to 800 flowers a night, so that's basically like eating their body weight in sugar.
DANIEL: For us, some sugar's OK because insulin pretty quickly helps sweep it out of our bloodstream, but eating our body weight in sugar?
CAMACHO: That is going to kill you.
DANIEL: But not the nectar bats, and here's where they reveal their superpower. Once they devour the sweet stuff, the sugar stays in their bloodstreams for long stretches without harming them, and that's what perplexes researchers like Camacho. How do these bats do it? What's their secret behind managing all this sugar? And if she could figure that out...
CAMACHO: Maybe that can teach us some things about how to be healthier in our lives.
DANIEL: Including how we can regulate our sugar levels - and perhaps, one day, how to treat or even prevent obesity and type 2 diabetes.
CAMACHO: And so here we go. He looks like he wants to fly around.
DANIEL: Camacho has been letting her bat rest, and now she needs him to fly around the tent, because she wants to explore how flight might be helping these nectar feeders process sugar.
CAMACHO: OK. Try to launch him.
DANIEL: Camacho releases her hold on the bat. He flutters around the tent, wings flapping at least a dozen times a second - an intensity that bats like this one can keep up all night long, as they dart from flower to flower. That's a lot of cardio.
CAMACHO: We know when we exercise, we use more energy.
DANIEL: So maybe these bats need to keep all that sugar actively circulating in their bloodstream, to power their flight to the next flower.
CAMACHO: It seems like they are really specialized to extract that energy rapidly in order to move around, but we still don't understand how that works, actually.
DANIEL: That is how exactly the bats are using flight to burn glucose and which molecules help them manage their blood sugar.
CAMACHO: Flying around. He's full of energy.
DANIEL: At this point, it's been 15 minutes of pretty much nonstop flying.
CAMACHO: Oh, what a beautiful bat. Oh, I love him (laughter).
DANIEL: Camacho now wants to see how all that exercise has affected his blood sugar levels, so she holds up a net.
You caught him in the net.
CAMACHO: Yeah. OK - the moment of truth.
DANIEL: Camacho pricks the bat, and a drop of crimson appears. She'll freeze some of this blood, and later use it to trace how the bat's metabolized all that sugar. She's also brought a glucose meter. Camacho expects that all that flying will have made his glucose levels drop.
CAMACHO: OK. There it is.
DANIEL: Her colleague touches the blood to the glucose meter, but even after 15 minutes of flying...
CAMACHO: Oof (laughter). Damn (laughter). I can't believe you.
DANIEL: ...His blood sugar's still so elevated, she can't measure the change. The bat's maxed out the meter, so the display just says high. If you or I had that reading for long enough without medical help, we'd be dead.
CAMACHO: So, OK, this is crazy.
DANIEL: Camacho's expression is a mix of disbelief and admiration that this bat has done the unthinkable. He's exercised his little batty body but hasn't made a noticeable dent in his blood sugar. Does that mean he's relying on another energy source to fly? Is he burning any of the glucose?
CAMACHO: Oh, my gosh. I need to understand this. Why aren't you dead?
DANIEL: In the meantime, she offers the bat yet more sugar water.
CAMACHO: The tongue is just going crazy, and he wants more.
DANIEL: Because this little brown fuzzball knows he has a mighty superpower - and he's not afraid to use it.
For NPR News, I'm Ari Daniel, Indian Church, Belize.
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