Afrezza as an injectable?

Afrezza is ultra rapid acting because it is going direct into the bloodstream via the lungs, instead of subcutaneous.

Humalog/Apidra is also fast if injected intravenously (here's a thread where they experiment with doing just that: http://www.diabetesforums.com/forum/topic/62716-intravenous-insulin-injections/ ). You're not going to get the fast in/out like Afrezza subcutaneously however.

tim2000s said:

On the other hand, Afrezza is a monomer insulin and not tied to a protein in hexamer form!

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Afrezza is human insulin, which has long been available on the market Humulin. Human insulin forms dimers and hexamers in solution. Humalog and Apidra are structurally engineered forms of insulin with amino acid substitutions that prevent hexamers forming. What you are proposing is Humulin, which is much slower than Homolog/Apidra.

I wrote up this description of how Afrezza works on another site:

1) Insulin is a hormone - a chemical that sends a signal or message to other parts of the body.

2) When you inject rapid acting insulin under the skin at mealtime, the accumulation of insulin called a depot is dispersed over the course of more than eight hours. It begins to have an effect in 45-60 minutes.

3) However insulin isn't secreted under the skin naturally. Normally a few minutes into eating mealtime, a sudden spike of insulin is released into the bloodstream directly into the liver portal vein. This message, called "first phase release" tells the liver to stop secreting glucose into the blood, and absorb glucose to keep it constant for more than an hour.

4) That message doesn't happen when you inject rapid-acting insulin. Instead glucose levels are attempted to be managed by elevating insulin levels for an extended period, but a pancreas doesn't work that way.

5) Afrezza is inhaled, and is released into the bloodstream in seconds. It restores the normal function of the liver at mealtime, by giving the normal message from the pancreas.

Nothing else does this, and that's why it's exciting. Blood levels of insulin at 70 minutes after inhaling Afrezza are the same as 3 hours after injecting Humalog.

I'm trying Afrezza. So far, it seems superior to injected insulin. It acts faster and clears the body faster and good news I've been losing about a pound a day. I inhale 3 8 unit cartridges before each meal. It may cause some lung problems, but since I use medical cannabis, I probably won't have any. The company that makes it is Mannkind and marketed by Sanofi. Godsend for type Is and I'm a type 2 so we'll see how it goes, but so far - stellar product! Probably the best drug for diabetes ever developed.

An excellent question Tim2000s and no answer received. I believe it is in the UK atm. I am seeing my endo tomorrow to query this.

Is there anyone else like me in the UK and using Afrezza?

tim2000s said:

Are you in the UK?

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No, I'm in the US. I've opened up a new thread about Afrezza - inhaled insulin.