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'Smart' insulin could prevent hypoglycemia during diabetes treatment: Development works to keep blood sugar at normal levels

UCLA bioengineers and their colleagues have developed a new type of insulin that could help prevent hypoglycemia in people who use the drug to manage diabetes.

The treatment is being evaluated for potential clinical trials and, if successful, could change diabetes care. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[...]The research team added an additional molecule to insulin to create the new smart insulin. This added molecule, called a glucose transporter inhibitor, chemically blocks the glucose transporter molecule that has come to the surface. Its presence doesn't block all glucose from entering, nor does it permanently block the transporter molecules. Instead, it's part of a dynamic process that depends on how many inhibitor and glucose molecules are present.

"Our new i-insulin works like a 'smart' key," said the study's principal investigator Zhen Gu, a professor of bioengineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. "The insulin lets glucose get into the cell, but the added inhibitor molecule prevents too much from going in when blood sugar is normal. This keeps blood sugar at normal levels and reduces the risk of hypoglycemia."

"This i-insulin can also rapidly respond to high glucose levels," added Jinqiang Wang, the study's co-lead author and a postdoctoral researcher in Gu's research group. "For example, after a meal, when glucose levels climb, the insulin level in the bloodstream also quickly increases, which helps normalize the glucose level."

[...]"The new insulin has the potential to be optimized for response times and how long it could last in the body before another dose would be required," Gu said. "And it could be delivered in other methods, such as a skin patch that automatically monitors blood sugar levels, or in pills."

Jinqiang Wang, et. al. Glucose transporter inhibitor-conjugated insulin mitigates hypoglycemia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019; 201901967 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1901967116

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