A team of scientists has found a less painful alternative for diabetic patients who are tired of daily injections. According to "New Atlas," researchers at the University of British Columbia have developed a new method for delivering insulin, where users place a few drops under their tongues.
According to the journal "Controlled Release," the hallmark of diabetes is the inability to produce enough insulin to regulate blood glucose levels. People with type 1 diabetes, and many with type 2 diabetes, require insulin multiple times a day, which is usually injected subcutaneously.
Current alternatives are less effective. There are less invasive methods under development, with varying levels of success. These include controlled-release implants or ultrasound patches that deliver medication directly through the skin, but the main focus of research is oral insulin delivery. Ultimately, swallowing a pill is simple and painless, something many people already do every day.
However, some problems remain as insulin is a fragile molecule that does not survive the journey through the stomach to the intestines, where it can be absorbed into the bloodstream. Coating it with various materials or even creating capsules that actually inject it into the lining could help, but this method means that insulin is first metabolized by the liver, which can alter its structure.
For the new study, the team at the University of British Columbia developed a new system called oral insulin. Instead of swallowing, it is taken in the form of drops placed under the tongue, a common method for taking medications that do not survive the stomach. This method is effective because the tissues under the tongue have many capillaries, allowing the medication to quickly enter the bloodstream.
To overcome the fact that insulin is a large molecule that cannot easily pass through cells, the team of scientists combined it with a cell-penetrating peptide (CPP) made from fish by-products, which makes cells more permeable.
Dr. Jianming Wu, one of the researchers in the study, explained that the idea behind this new technique is that it serves as "a guide that helps insulin navigate through a maze to quickly reach the bloodstream, as this guide finds the best routes, facilitating insulin's access to where it's needed."
The researchers tested the new technique on laboratory mice. When paired with the CPP, insulin successfully reached the bloodstream and controlled blood glucose levels with the same efficiency as insulin delivered by injection. Without the directional peptide, insulin tended to get stuck in the mouth lining.
