PNAS: Hypoglycemia during diabetes treatment? "Smart" insulin to prevent it

According to the International Diabetes Alliance, there were 425 million adult diabetics

Diabetes mellitus with type 1 diabetes (which cannot produce insulin on its own) or type 2 diabetes (unable to respond to normal levels of insulin) need to be injected with insulin for a long time, and their insulin injection dose needs to be calculated based on blood glucose levels monitored by a blood glucose meter or continuous blood glucose monitoring system, and also need to control carbohydrate intake to maintain normal

From this perspective, the team led by Professor Gu Zhen of UCLA has developed a "smart" insulin called "i-insulin" that intelligently monitors blood sugar and regulates insulin to prevent hypoglycemia

Insulin is a hormone

The team added another molecule to insulin, a glucose transporter inhibitor, to create new smart insulin

Our new insulin is like a 'smart' key, glucose can enter cells, but the increased inhibitor molecules can prevent excess glucose while also reducing the risk of hypoglycemia, maintaining blood sugar at a normal level

"This insulin can also respond quickly to high blood sugar levels, such as after meals, when glucose levels rise, insulin levels in the blood also increase rapidly, which helps normalize

The i-insulin test was performed on mice with type 1 diabetes, and after the first subcutaneous injection of i-insulin, the mice maintained normal blood glucose levels for up to 10 hours, and the re-injection test 3 hours after the first injection found that it prolonged the protective effect

"Before conducting clinical trials, we need to further systematically evaluate the long-term biocompatibility of modified i-insulin with animal models

"Through further optimization and expansion, i-insulin is expected to further improve its response time and action time