Scientists at Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk have developed a ‘smart’ insulin that responds to the spike and crash in blood sugar levels in real time. This can help to improve treatment options for people with diabetes. The research was published in the journal Nature.
The scientists developed an insulin molecule with an “on-and-off switch” that automatically responds to sugar levels in the blood. The synthesised modified molecule, called NNC2215, was tested in pigs and rats and was discovered to be as good as natural insulin in humans, according to a report in The Print. It is yet to be refined enough to be used in humans, however, initial findings are promising enough to be extremely similar to the expected observations in humans already.
Scientists believe that this insulin will help address the fluctuation of blood sugar levels and the challenge of matching insulin dosage to sugar levels. There have been previous attempts at engineering a smart molecule, but this is the first one that targets the sugar molecule glucose in the blood, instead of others like fructose. David Sacks, a clinical chemist unaffiliated with the study, said, in a statement accompanying the research, “This is a very good study that was well designed—they did all the necessary experiments to validate that this works.
It certainly provides encouragement that this approach is worth pursuing.” Researcher Rita Slaaby and colleagues present a modified form of insulin with activity.
