Exciting Results As New Tablet Offers Oral Alternative To Insulin Injections

People with type 1 diabetes are insulin dependent, meaning they can no longer produce the hormone insulin. Because of this, they often have to take multiple insulin injections daily to regulate their blood sugar levels. These injections are often described as causing some discomfort or pain. Sometimes, a person with type 2 diabetes may also need insulin injections, particularly if they have high blood sugar. “These exciting results show that we are on the right track to developing an insulin formulation that will no longer need to be injected before each meal, improving the quality of life, as well as the mental health, of more than nine million type 1 diabetics. The world .” said Professor Dr Anubhav Pratap-Singh, the principal investigator from the School of Earth and Food Systems. Inspired by his father’s experience of living with diabetes, which required injections up to 3-4 times a day, Dr. Pratap-Singh sought to develop a non-injectable insulin solution. While the tablets have only been tested on rats so far, it could mean that a non-injectable version of insulin could be available for human use in the future. Although most oral insulin tablets currently being developed typically release insulin slowly over a period of two to four hours, rapid-acting insulin injections can fully release the hormone in as little as 30 to 120 minutes. Previous oral solutions take longer to be absorbed, with most of the insulin dose settling in the stomach rather than reaching its destination in a person’s liver. Insulin is produced in the pancreas and then used in the liver to help regulate blood sugar or glucose. The team wanted to see how they could increase the rate of absorption of oral insulin tablets, so they created a pill that is not swallowed but dissolves when placed between the gums and the cheek. “For injectable insulin we usually need 100iu per dose. Other swallowable tablets that expand and go into the stomach may need 500iu of insulin, which is mostly wasted, and this is an important problem we are trying to solve,” said Yigong Guo, first author of the study and a closely-collaborating PhD candidate . in the project. Researchers used a new method that uses the buccal mucosa (a thin membrane lining the inner cheek and back of the lips) to help deliver insulin directly to the liver without losing any of the dose. “Even after two hours of delivery, we found no insulin in the stomachs of the rats we examined. It was all in the liver, and that’s the ideal target for insulin — that’s really what we wanted to see,” Yigong added. Dr Pratap-Singh hopes the study could progress to human trials given more time and funding. Along with improving the quality of life for people with diabetes, he believes the tablets his team is developing could be more sustainable, cost-effective and accessible. “That’s a lot of environmental waste from the needles and plastic from the syringe that might not be recycled and go to landfill, which wouldn’t be a problem with an oral tablet,” concluded Dr. Pratap-Singh. This study was originally published in Scientific Reports.

title: " Exciting Results As New Tablet Offers Oral Alternative To Insulin Injections Klmat" ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-25” author: “Kathy Gonzalez”

People with type 1 diabetes are insulin dependent, meaning they can no longer produce the hormone insulin. Because of this, they often have to take multiple insulin injections daily to regulate their blood sugar levels. These injections are often described as causing some discomfort or pain. Sometimes, a person with type 2 diabetes may also need insulin injections, particularly if they have high blood sugar. “These exciting results show that we are on the right track to developing an insulin formulation that will no longer need to be injected before each meal, improving the quality of life, as well as the mental health, of more than nine million type 1 diabetics. The world .” said Professor Dr Anubhav Pratap-Singh, the principal investigator from the School of Earth and Food Systems. Inspired by his father’s experience of living with diabetes, which required injections up to 3-4 times a day, Dr. Pratap-Singh sought to develop a non-injectable insulin solution. While the tablets have only been tested on rats so far, it could mean that a non-injectable version of insulin could be available for human use in the future. Although most oral insulin tablets currently being developed typically release insulin slowly over a period of two to four hours, rapid-acting insulin injections can fully release the hormone in as little as 30 to 120 minutes. Previous oral solutions take longer to be absorbed, with most of the insulin dose settling in the stomach rather than reaching its destination in a person’s liver. Insulin is produced in the pancreas and then used in the liver to help regulate blood sugar or glucose. The team wanted to see how they could increase the rate of absorption of oral insulin tablets, so they created a pill that is not swallowed but dissolves when placed between the gums and the cheek. “For injectable insulin we usually need 100iu per dose. Other swallowable tablets that expand and go into the stomach may need 500iu of insulin, which is mostly wasted, and this is an important problem we are trying to solve,” said Yigong Guo, first author of the study and a closely-collaborating PhD candidate . in the project. Researchers used a new method that uses the buccal mucosa (a thin membrane lining the inner cheek and back of the lips) to help deliver insulin directly to the liver without losing any of the dose. “Even after two hours of delivery, we found no insulin in the stomachs of the rats we examined. It was all in the liver, and that’s the ideal target for insulin — that’s really what we wanted to see,” Yigong added. Dr Pratap-Singh hopes the study could progress to human trials given more time and funding. Along with improving the quality of life for people with diabetes, he believes the tablets his team is developing could be more sustainable, cost-effective and accessible. “That’s a lot of environmental waste from the needles and plastic from the syringe that might not be recycled and go to landfill, which wouldn’t be a problem with an oral tablet,” concluded Dr. Pratap-Singh. This study was originally published in Scientific Reports.

title: " Exciting Results As New Tablet Offers Oral Alternative To Insulin Injections Klmat" ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-11” author: “Frank Sheckler”

People with type 1 diabetes are insulin dependent, meaning they can no longer produce the hormone insulin. Because of this, they often have to take multiple insulin injections daily to regulate their blood sugar levels. These injections are often described as causing some discomfort or pain. Sometimes, a person with type 2 diabetes may also need insulin injections, particularly if they have high blood sugar. “These exciting results show that we are on the right track to developing an insulin formulation that will no longer need to be injected before each meal, improving the quality of life, as well as the mental health, of more than nine million type 1 diabetics. The world .” said Professor Dr Anubhav Pratap-Singh, the principal investigator from the School of Earth and Food Systems. Inspired by his father’s experience of living with diabetes, which required injections up to 3-4 times a day, Dr. Pratap-Singh sought to develop a non-injectable insulin solution. While the tablets have only been tested on rats so far, it could mean that a non-injectable version of insulin could be available for human use in the future. Although most oral insulin tablets currently being developed typically release insulin slowly over a period of two to four hours, rapid-acting insulin injections can fully release the hormone in as little as 30 to 120 minutes. Previous oral solutions take longer to be absorbed, with most of the insulin dose settling in the stomach rather than reaching its destination in a person’s liver. Insulin is produced in the pancreas and then used in the liver to help regulate blood sugar or glucose. The team wanted to see how they could increase the rate of absorption of oral insulin tablets, so they created a pill that is not swallowed but dissolves when placed between the gums and the cheek. “For injectable insulin we usually need 100iu per dose. Other swallowable tablets that expand and go into the stomach may need 500iu of insulin, which is mostly wasted, and this is an important problem we are trying to solve,” said Yigong Guo, first author of the study and a closely-collaborating PhD candidate . in the project. Researchers used a new method that uses the buccal mucosa (a thin membrane lining the inner cheek and back of the lips) to help deliver insulin directly to the liver without losing any of the dose. “Even after two hours of delivery, we found no insulin in the stomachs of the rats we examined. It was all in the liver, and that’s the ideal target for insulin — that’s really what we wanted to see,” Yigong added. Dr Pratap-Singh hopes the study could progress to human trials given more time and funding. Along with improving the quality of life for people with diabetes, he believes the tablets his team is developing could be more sustainable, cost-effective and accessible. “That’s a lot of environmental waste from the needles and plastic from the syringe that might not be recycled and go to landfill, which wouldn’t be a problem with an oral tablet,” concluded Dr. Pratap-Singh. This study was originally published in Scientific Reports.

title: " Exciting Results As New Tablet Offers Oral Alternative To Insulin Injections Klmat" ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-20” author: “Jonnie Reavis”

People with type 1 diabetes are insulin dependent, meaning they can no longer produce the hormone insulin. Because of this, they often have to take multiple insulin injections daily to regulate their blood sugar levels. These injections are often described as causing some discomfort or pain. Sometimes, a person with type 2 diabetes may also need insulin injections, particularly if they have high blood sugar. “These exciting results show that we are on the right track to developing an insulin formulation that will no longer need to be injected before each meal, improving the quality of life, as well as the mental health, of more than nine million type 1 diabetics. The world .” said Professor Dr Anubhav Pratap-Singh, the principal investigator from the School of Earth and Food Systems. Inspired by his father’s experience of living with diabetes, which required injections up to 3-4 times a day, Dr. Pratap-Singh sought to develop a non-injectable insulin solution. While the tablets have only been tested on rats so far, it could mean that a non-injectable version of insulin could be available for human use in the future. Although most oral insulin tablets currently being developed typically release insulin slowly over a period of two to four hours, rapid-acting insulin injections can fully release the hormone in as little as 30 to 120 minutes. Previous oral solutions take longer to be absorbed, with most of the insulin dose settling in the stomach rather than reaching its destination in a person’s liver. Insulin is produced in the pancreas and then used in the liver to help regulate blood sugar or glucose. The team wanted to see how they could increase the rate of absorption of oral insulin tablets, so they created a pill that is not swallowed but dissolves when placed between the gums and the cheek. “For injectable insulin we usually need 100iu per dose. Other swallowable tablets that expand and go into the stomach may need 500iu of insulin, which is mostly wasted, and this is an important problem we are trying to solve,” said Yigong Guo, first author of the study and a closely-collaborating PhD candidate . in the project. Researchers used a new method that uses the buccal mucosa (a thin membrane lining the inner cheek and back of the lips) to help deliver insulin directly to the liver without losing any of the dose. “Even after two hours of delivery, we found no insulin in the stomachs of the rats we examined. It was all in the liver, and that’s the ideal target for insulin — that’s really what we wanted to see,” Yigong added. Dr Pratap-Singh hopes the study could progress to human trials given more time and funding. Along with improving the quality of life for people with diabetes, he believes the tablets his team is developing could be more sustainable, cost-effective and accessible. “That’s a lot of environmental waste from the needles and plastic from the syringe that might not be recycled and go to landfill, which wouldn’t be a problem with an oral tablet,” concluded Dr. Pratap-Singh. This study was originally published in Scientific Reports.