Fewer Injections: Glucose Responsive Insulin Being Developed

Insulin designed to linger in the bloodstream and activate when needed, called glucose-responsive insulin, is now a step closer to becoming a reality owed to a new computer model.

By predicting how a glucose-responsive insulin (GRI) will react to changing blood sugar levels, this new computer model is streamlining the GRI development process.

“The concept of GRI has been a longstanding goal of the diabetes field” said Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT. “If done correctly, you could make it so that diabetics could take an occasional [GRI] dose and never have to worry about their blood sugar.”

The type of GRI that the MIT researchers worked with has molecules called PBA attached to it. This insulin is activated when its PBA molecules bind with glucose. So, equations were devised that describe how PBA-modified insulin behaves based on specific factors, such as how strongly it binds to glucose, and how quickly the insulin activates. Existing models of how glucose and insulin behave in different parts of the body (e.g., muscle, blood vessels) were combined with the new equations.

This work generated a computer model that can predict post-meal blood sugar spikes, a GRI’s response to the spike, and the resulting glucose levels.

Strano and colleagues hope other investigators will use their computer model to develop new types of GRI. They also plan on working with other researchers to test the best GRI candidates - as predicted by their computer model - on mice.

The computer model might also be used to create other drugs that respond to changes in the body. Anticoagulants, for instance, could be designed to activate when blood clotting proteins are elevated. “That's pie-in-the-sky at this point, but the starting point of this concept is a model for their design,” says Strano.

Source: Science Daily
Photo credit: John Campbell