Researchers at Stanford University (United States) are developing a new formulation of fast -acting insulin: it begins to take effect almost immediately and could work four times faster than current insulins.
Based on monomeric insulin, a rapid action type, researchers decided to focus on trying to alleviate one of their main inconveniences: it is too unstable for practical use.
"The insulin molecules themselves are fine, so we wanted to develop a 'magical dust' that would help solve the stability problem," explains Eric Appel, assistant professor of material science and engineering at Stanford University.
"People often focus on therapeutic agents on the formulation of a medication, but, by focusing only on performance additives (parts that once referred as 'inactive ingredients') we can make great advances in the general effectiveness of thedrug".
After examining and testing a large number of additive polymers, the researchers found one that could stabilize monomeric insulin for more than 24 hours in stress conditions (fast -acting commercial insulin remains stable from six to ten hours in the same conditions).
"This has been an important objective for many large pharmaceutical companies for decades"
The researchers confirmed the ultra -grape action of their formulation in diabetic pigs and are now carrying out additional tests in the hope of being able to carry out clinical trials in humans.
The current commercial formulations of insulin contain a mixture of three ways: monomers, diameters and hexamers.Scientists have meant that monomers would be the most useful in the body but, inside the jars, insulin molecules are attracted to the surface of the liquid where they are added and becomes inactive.(Hexamers are more stable in the bottle but take longer to function in the body because they first have to break down in monomers to activate).This is where the personalized polymer that is attracted by the air/water interface enters.
In commercial insulin, which usually remains stable for about 10 hours in accelerated aging tests, the polymer drastically increased the duration of stability for more than a month.
The next step was to see how the polymer affected monomeric insulin, which alone joins between one and two hours.The researchers confirmed that their formulation could remain stable for more than 24 hours under stress.
"In terms of stability, we took a great step back when making monomeric insulin. Then, adding our polymer, we achieved more than double the stability of the current commercial standard," says Caitlin Maikawa, co -author of the study, which is published in theScientific Magazine 'Science Translational Medicine'.
Start and finish their activity before facilitating people to properly control their blood sugar levels
In tests in diabetic pigs, the non -human animal model rather similar to us, it was found that this new formulation of insulin reached 90 percent of its maximum activity within five minutes after insulin injection.
As a comparison, fast -acting commercial insulin began to show a significant activity only after ten minutes.In addition, the activity of monomeric insulin reached its maximum point at ten minutes, while commercial insulin required 25 minutes.In humans, this difference could be translated into a decrease in the four -way the time it takes for insulin to achieve its maximum activity.
"It is not preceded," says Appel, in statements cited by Scitechdaily."This has been an important objective for many large pharmaceutical companies for decades."
Monomeric insulin also ended its action before.The fact of starting and finishing the activity before facilitates people to use insulin in coordination with meal glucose levels to properly control their blood sugar levels.
Since its insulin formulation is activated so quickly, and, therefore, it is more similar to the insulin of a person without diabetes, researchers are excited about the possibility of contributing to the development of an artificial device for the pancreasthat works without the need for the patient to intervene at meals.
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