Is there a pain-free alternative to insulin shots? Good news might be on the horizon for people with diabetes, as findings of a recent animal study suggest that a swallowable insulin pill tucked in a piece of chocolate might replace painful insulin shots in the future.
Around 425 million people in the world have diabetes and 75 million of them depend on insulin injections to manage their blood sugar levels.
Scientists from the University of Tromsø (UiT) The Arctic University of Norway explored alternatives to insulin shots and developed an encapsulated pill with tiny nano-carriers of insulin designed for direct delivery to the liver.
“This way of taking insulin is more precise because it delivers the insulin rapidly to the areas of the body that need it most. When you take insulin with a syringe, it is spread throughout the body where it can cause unwanted side effects,” said Peter McCourt from UiT The Arctic University of Norway, a researcher behind the study published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
Unlike many medicines that can be swallowed, insulin has to be injected, as it breaks down in the stomach before it reaches the liver. However, researchers solved the hurdle by creating a protective coating that can only break down in the liver when the blood sugar levels are high.
“We have created a coating to protect the insulin from being broken down by stomach acid and digestive enzymes on its way through the digestive system, keeping it safe until it reaches its destination, namely the liver,” McCourt explained.
“This means that when blood sugar is high, there is a rapid release of insulin, and even more importantly when blood sugar is low, no insulin is released,” said Nicholas J. Hunt from the University of Sydney, a researcher who co-led the project.
“In order to make the oral insulin palatable we incorporated it into sugar-free chocolate, this approach was well received,” Hunt added.
According to Hunt, the pills offer a more practical and patient-friendly…
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