Gum with insulin instead of injections?

Scientists from Syracuse University (New York, USA), led by Robert Doyle, intend to patent a new dosage form of insulin – insulin gum.

Currently, diabetic patients receive insulin by injection, which is associated with a number of inconveniences. That is why scientists in various countries of the world are working to create a more patient-friendly dosage form of insulin. The inhaled form of insulin, approved in the USA in 2006, was later withdrawn from sale due to the excessively high cost. And when trying to create a tablet form of the drug, scientists faced a number of difficulties: insulin was easily destroyed by enzymes of the digestive system and poorly absorbed into the bloodstream.

Robert Doyle and his colleagues found an original way to solve the problem. To create an "edible" form of insulin, they decided to use a unique mechanism of vitamin B12 transport in the human body. This vitamin binds to the protein haptocorrin, which is secreted by the cells of the salivary glands. In this form, the complex is protected from destruction in the aggressive environment of the stomach. In the small intestine, vitamin B12 is separated from haptocorrin and attached to another protein – the internal Castle factor, which allows the vitamin to be easily absorbed from the intestine into the bloodstream.

Scientists decided to "attach" insulin molecules to vitamin B12 in order to use it as a conductor. Preliminary tests conducted on rats have shown that this technique really works.

According to Doyle, rats received a complex of insulin with vitamin B12 in liquid form, but in humans, the best way to administer the drug would be to use chewing gum. During chewing, a large amount of saliva is released, which contains the amount of haptocorrin necessary for binding the drug, the scientist explained.

Med News based on the materials of New Scientist: Invention: Insulin chewing gum 

Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru16.01.2009