People with type I diabetes must self-inject manufactured insulin multiple times a day to maintain healthy hormone levels because their bodies don’t produce enough of the hormone naturally. Because glucose consumption and use must be controlled, the timing of injections must also be coordinated with diet and exercise.
Research into glucose-responsive insulin, or “smart” insulin, aims to improve the quality of life for people with type I diabetes by developing a form of insulin that controls blood sugar levels over time but is injected less frequently. We are aiming for longer period.
A team from Zhejiang University in China recently study Documentation of an improved smart insulin system in animal models. The current study does not include human experiments. Their insulin was able to regulate blood sugar levels in diabetic mice and minipigs for a week after a single subcutaneous injection.
“Theoretically, [smart insulin is] It will be very important in the future.” steve bain, Clinical Director of the Diabetes Research Unit at Swansea University, was not involved in the study. “It’s going to be a game changer.”
polymer cage
The new smart insulin is based on a form of insulin modified with gluconic acid that forms a complex with polymers through chemical bonds and strong electrostatic attraction. When insulin becomes trapped in the polymer, its signaling function is blocked, allowing him to administer a week’s worth of insulin in one injection without the risk of overdosing.
Crucial to the “glucose-responsive” nature of this system is the fact that the chemical structures of glucose and gluconic acid are very similar, meaning that the two molecules bind in a very similar way. Masu. When glucose encounters the insulin polymer complex, it displaces some of the bound insulin and forms a unique chemical bond to the polymer. Glucose binding also disrupts electrostatic attraction, further promoting insulin release.
Glucose can bind preferentially to the polymer and trigger the release of insulin. The extent of this insulin release is then determined by the amount of glucose present. This means that only small amounts of insulin are released when blood sugar levels are fairly low between meals. This is known as basal insulin and is required for baseline control of blood sugar.
But when blood sugar levels spike after a meal, more insulin is released. Your body will be able to properly regulate excess sugar, preventing abnormally high blood sugar levels known as hyperglycemia. Long-term effects of high blood sugar in humans include nerve damage to the limbs and permanent damage to vision.
This system mimics the body’s natural process in which insulin is also released in response to glucose.
Better control than standard insulin
The new smart insulin was tested in five mice and three minipigs. Minipigs are often used as an animal model that is physiologically closer to humans. One of the three minipigs was given a slightly lower dose of smart insulin, and the other two were given a higher dose of smart insulin. Pigs on the lower dose had the best response, with blood sugar levels tightly controlled and returning to healthy levels after eating.
During treatment, blood sugar levels in the other two pigs were still above the range seen in healthy animals, but were significantly lower compared to pre-injection levels. Blood sugar control was also more stringent compared to daily insulin injections.
However, it should be noted that the minipigs that showed the best response also had the lowest pre-treatment blood sugar levels, which may explain why the treatment appeared to work so well in this animal. There is a gender.
Importantly, all these effects were long-lasting, with better regulation observed 1 week after treatment. Additionally, injecting smart insulin into animals did not cause a significant immune response, which can be a common pitfall when introducing biomaterials into animals or humans.
don’t sugarcoat
This study is not without limitations. Although long-term glucose regulation was observed in the mice and minipigs studied, only five mice and three minipigs participated in the study. And, of course, there is always a risk that the results of animal studies may not fully translate into human clinical trials. “We have to accept that these are animal studies, so applying them to humans is always a little bit problematic,” Bain said.
Although more research is needed before this smart insulin system can be tested in humans, this work is a promising step forward in the field.
Nature Biomedical Engineering, 2023. DOI: 10.1038/s41551-023-01138-7
Ivan Paul is a UK-based freelance writer with a PhD in cancer research. He belongs to his X @ivan_paul_.
