Control of blood glucose levels is a subtle, challenging task for a person with diabetes. Insulin is the primary glucose regulator, and improper control leads to hypoglycemia-a deadly decrease in blood sugar. Now, scientists have designed the revolutionary smart insulin, which self-regulates its activity as a function of glucose level in blood to maximize minimization of both hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia.
The scientists published the results in Nature by introducing a new insulin molecule called NNC2215. The activity of this new molecule would turn on or off based on the blood glucose concentration levels. The molecule decreases high blood sugar but has shown that the dangerous dips associated with most insulin treatments are avoided in animal models. Such development forms an important milestone for diabetes care.
Problems of Conventional Insulin
Because of this, for 422 million people in the world that suffer from diabetes, insulin therapy plays an extremely important role in keeping the level of blood glucose under a safe head. Excess of insulin can lead to hypoglycemia, a condition where the level of blood sugar falls and leads to confusion, weakness, or even death. Because they are required to take multiple injections of insulin in a day, the patient suffering from type 1 diabetes is prone to such risks a lot. Constant blood-sugar crashes already factor into poor quality of life for many diabetics,” says Michael Weiss, a biochemist at Indiana University.
How Does Smart Insulin Work?
The inspiration behind NNC2215 is the glucose-sensitive switch in the insulin molecule. The molecule has two key ingredients: a macrocycle or ring-like structure and a glucoside, which is derived from glucose. This is a macrocycle binding molecule that keeps the insulin inactive when blood glucose levels are low. When glucose levels are higher, then the sugar molecule replaces the glucoside, changing the conformation of the insulin molecule to an active state. In this case, it ensures that insulin only activates when in use and therefore helps prevent both high and low blood sugar events.
Animal Studies Successful
Studies on pigs and rats that had glucose infusion to mimic diabetes were studied for the ability of NNC2215 to be like normal human insulin and decrease blood sugar concentration. Its added advantage was that it circumvented the severe fluctuations in blood glucose concentrations, which always occur with the use of conventional insulin therapy. This flexibility can significantly improve diabetes control and eliminate the untoward effects of insulin therapy.
According to David Sacks, a clinical chemist at the National Institutes of Health, the path chosen for this kind of study is “well-designed and validated,” which would prove beneficial in the care of diabetes, he surmised.
Although the study proves the concept of glucose-sensitive insulin, it poses several challenges to be addressed. Future studies will need to confirm its effectiveness within the narrower glucose ranges seen in human patients. Furthermore, the NNC2215 should have a satisfactory safety profile and be possible to produce at an acceptable cost.
Zhen Gu, a biomedical engineer at Zhejiang University and developer of glucose-sensitive insulin, spoke on the need to do much more than what has been done already, that is, much more work to be done so that this molecule would be safe for human usage.
There are several types of smart insulins in current development that will lead to tailored insulin therapies. Such developments in smart insulin may eventually be applied to diabetes care, enabling patients to maintain much tighter control of blood glucose levels-and potentially with exquisite quality of life.
