‘Smart’ insulin might help diabetics monitor blood sugar levels in future

Instead of taking repeated blood tests and injections to keep levels of blood sugar under control, diabetics might be able to do so with a single dose of ‘smart’ insulin which, if it gets through the trial phase, will revolutionize the way diabetes is managed. Ins-PBA-F created by a team of researchers at the University of Utah Health Sciences has already been found to be effective in automatically adjusting blood sugar in mice with type 1 diabetes.

Though the news is being hailed by diabetics across the world who know how difficult it is to keep track of the level of sugar in the blood and then regulate it, experts say that it might take a few years for Ins-PBA-F to become a reality.

Those suffering from Type I diabetes are unable to make or use their own insulin. They have to rely on insulin injections to keep the level of sugar in their blood shooting up but an overdose of insulin can cause the blood sugar level to fall dangerously low as well which is why diabetics need to check the level of sugar in their blood regularly.

Experts have been looking for measures to make things easier for diabetics for a long time and ‘smart’ insulin seems to be just the right answer for that. Dr Danny Chou from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been, together with his colleagues, testing a smart insulin developed by them.

The insulin produced by this team is a chemically modified version of regular, long-acting insulin. It has an extra set of molecules stuck on the end that binds it to proteins that circulate in the bloodstream. While it is attached to these, the smart insulin is in its switched off mode, he explains.

When blood sugar rises, the smart insulin switches on – glucose locks on to the smart insulin and tells it to get to work.

Dr Chou said: “My goal is to make life easier and safer for diabetics. This is an important advance in insulin therapy.”

The findings of the research which was funded by The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.