New form of insulin developed in India

Wed, 14 Jul 2010
In what is being described as an important breakthrough in the fight against diabetes, a new form of insulin that could control blood sugar levels in diabetics has been developed. Scientists in India, where there are up to 50 million people suffering from the metabolic condition, have discovered a way of using only a single shot of insulin that controls sugar levels for more than a month, rather than the usual daily injections that diabetics have to undergo.

The study treated natural human insulin at different temperatures and chemical conditions before finding the right combination of factors that produced the most effective new form of insulin. Laboratory experiments on animals found that the insulin had the ability to control blood sugar in diabetic rats through an injection given only every three months.

Ambrish Mithal, president of the Endocrine Society of India, pointed out that "Both conceptually and for clinical practice it is an exciting discovery because it uses natural chemically unchanged insulin and clinically it is useful because it provides ease for patients by reducing the number of pin pricks ."

The research has taken two years to get to this point; the technology has been patented, and the hope is that the new insulin will be a commercial success. Trials of the new insulin molecule will begin on humans soon, although its wider use is probably still many years away.

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