{"id":2364692,"date":"2020-05-13T16:04:28","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T20:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/?p=2364692"},"modified":"2020-05-13T16:04:28","modified_gmt":"2020-05-13T20:04:28","slug":"blood-sugar-diabetes-insulin-2364692-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/blood-sugar-diabetes-insulin-2364692-2\/","title":{"rendered":"2-in-1 injection may help diabetics control blood sugar"},"content":{"rendered":"
A new method could boost the effectiveness of the insulin injections people with diabetes routinely take to control their blood sugar, research in pigs shows.<\/p>\n
The advance might enable patients with diabetes to take a double-acting shot that contains insulin in combination with a drug based on a second hormone, known as amylin. Amylin<\/a> plays a synergistic role with insulin to control blood sugar levels after eating in a more effective way than insulin alone and mimics what occurs naturally with a meal.<\/p>\n While the amylin-based drug is already commercially available, it is estimated that less than 1% of patients with diabetes taking insulin therapy also take this complementary treatment because the two hormones\u2014which work together seamlessly in the body\u2014are too unstable to coexist in the same syringe.<\/p>\n “Taking that second injection with the insulin shot is a real barrier for most patients. Our formulation would allow them to be given together in a single injection or in an insulin pump,” says Eric Appel, a materials scientist at Stanford University and senior author of the paper in Nature Biomedical Engineering<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n The new technique involves a protective coating that wraps around insulin and amylin molecules and, for the first time, allows them to coexist in a single shot.<\/p>\n “This coating dissolves in the bloodstream, enabling these two important hormones to work together in a way that mimics how they function in healthy individuals,” Appel says.<\/p>\n So far, the researchers have tested the wrapper’s stability in the laboratory, and done preliminary experiments to see how their two-in-one injection works on the most advanced preclinical model\u2014diabetic pigs.<\/p>\n But, because both drugs are already on the market and the dual-drug formulation was tested in advanced models, Appel says the team need only demonstrate that their technique is nontoxic in humans to start trials in people, bringing the technology closer to market than most early-stage drugs.<\/p>\n Appel and his collaborators hope the approach could, one day, dramatically increase the use of amylin and lead to improved glucose management<\/a> for the estimated 450 million people worldwide with either juvenile (type 1) diabetes or adult-onset (type 2) diabetes.<\/p>\n Although few patients with diabetes currently take the amylin-based drug after their insulin injection, those who do experience profound benefits, Appel says. Past clinical data shows that patients taking both lose weight and have better control over their blood sugar.<\/p>\n Enhanced diabetes management can reduce the risk of serious health complications, such as renal failure, blindness, heart disease, and amputations, all of which loom over anyone with diabetes.<\/p>\n If the wrapper approach makes it possible to combine insulin and amylin in one dose, this would offer patients with diabetes a convenient way to mimic their natural secretion in the human body. In non-diabetics, amylin secretes from the same cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. Insulin improves cells’ uptake of sugar, removing it from the bloodstream.<\/p>\nBringing insulin and amylin together<\/h3>\n
Fewer blood sugar spikes<\/h3>\n