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| Duke Researchers are working on a new type 2 diabetes injection that could last a month |
Anyone diagnosed with type 2 diabetes know it isn’t easy to manage blood sugar control. One of the barriers is the constant need for monitoring blood sugar and giving injections in the morning and evening - and for some , even more often.
Now there is a drug in development that means one injection that could last for 14-days. The implication is more freedom from the burdensome act of carrying around insulin.
Biomedical engineers at Duke University have developed a technology that could replace daily and even weekly insulin injections for type 2 diabetes treatment.
What if you only needed insulin once a month?
The insulin is combined with a biopolymer that keeps insulin circulating in the body for a longer period of time than what is currently on the market. The development could mean insulin injections could be given just once or twice a month , which could be life-changing for those trying to manage type-2 diabetes.
Current therapies that target insulin signaling molecules only last a short time and clear the body quickly , researchers explain.
After a longer period of use , even weekly injections fail to control blood sugars , making the Duke researcher’s innovation unique.
How they did it
GLP-1 is a molecule that ‘tells’ the pancreas when to secrete insulin to lower blood sugar levels.
The Duke researchers created a technique that fuses GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide) to another heat sensitive peptide in a solution that is injected like any insulin.
As the solution heats with body temperature it forms a gel that is stored and then slowly released , lasting 3-times longer than current type 2 diabetes injectables.
Ashutosh Chilkoti , chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at Duke University and a senior author of the paper said it took some tweaking to design the polymer that fuses GLP-1 to peptide for slow release - called elastin-like polypeptide (ELP).
"By doing so , we managed to triple the duration of this short-acting drug for type 2 diabetes , outperforming other competing designs."
The researchers say the injection initially controlled glucose levels in mice for up to ten days. With a little more work they tested the insulin on rhesus monkeys and the glucose control persisted for 14-days.
Kelli Luginbuhl , a PhD student in the Chilkoti lab and co-author of the study said in a media release: "Because our metabolism is slower than monkeys and mice , the treatment should theoretically last even longer in humans , so our hope is that this will be the first bi-weekly or once-a-month formulation for people with type 2 diabetes."
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