Is insulin really the only alternative to balance blood sugar levels in patients with type 1 diabetes? A new study suggests not.
Normally, the pancreas is able to produce insulin in sufficient quantities, allowing the hormone to act in balancing blood sugar levels. You patients with type 1 diabetes they don’t produce enough insulin, so they need daily injections to keep their sugar levels stable.
When uncontrolled, diabetes can cause nerve damage, heart disease and blindness. But some people do not control it properly due to their aversion to needles. You insulin pills would solve this problemand are also easier to store and transport than ampoules.
Pills have been in development for decades. Although they contain high doses of insulin, they have a low level of absorption – much of the insulin is lost in the stomach.
Researchers at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) in Melbourne, Australia, believe they have found an alternative to insulin. The findings of the team of scientists are a significant advance in the creation of a pill against diabetes.
The authors have successfully demonstrated how a molecule can mimic insulin, according to the SciTechDaily. Thus, if confirmed, alternative molecules can be used to activate the uptake of glucose in the blood, eliminating the need for insulin. The study was published in the magazine Nature Communications.
“Since the discovery of insulin 100 years ago, the development of an insulin tablet has has been a dream for diabetes researchersbut after decades of trying, there has been little success,” said study co-author Nicholas Kirk.
In September of last year, a team of researchers from the University of British Columbia, Canada, found that the latest version of their oral insulin pills is absorbed, in rats, in the same way as injected insulin.
The results show that “we are on the right path” to develop an “insulin formulation that does not need to be injected, improving the quality of life and mental health of more than nine million type 1 diabetics worldwide,” said lead researcher Anubhav Pratap-Singh at the time.
Before that, in 2018, a team of scientists from Harvard University, in the United States, had already successfully administered insulin orally in guinea pigs.
Scientific inquiry has risen dramatically with the development of cryoelectron microscopy, a new technology that can visualize molecules down to atomic detail, allowing the generation of 3D images.
The new study shows how an insulin-mimicking molecule acts on the insulin receptor and activates it. This is an important first step in getting your cells to absorb glucose when sugar levels are too high.
The discovery by the team of researchers from Australia could lead to a drug to replace insulin, ending the need for injections.
Daniel Costa, ZAP // 
