LAUSR

For many people with type 2 diabetes, and for those with Type 1 diabetes, subcutaneous insulin injection is crucial to maintain optimal blood glucose levels, so as to prevent and treat acute short term effects of hyperglycaemia as well as reducing long-term risks of vascular complications. However, compliance to injection treatment varies, and some people find daily injection treatment daunting, interrupts daily schedules and unpleasant. The search for alternative insulin delivery methods, for example by oral delivery, has therefore been a subject of intense research. To this end, a research team from MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, which also included scientists from Novo Nordisk, has developed a drug capsule that could be used to deliver oral doses of insulin, potentially replacing the daily injections that people with type 1 diabetes have to give themselves. The capsule is about the size of a blueberry, and contains a small needle made of compressed, freezed-dried insulin, which is injected after the capsule reaches the stomach. In animal studies, this delivery method provided adequate insulin to lower blood sugar to levels comparable to those produced by subcutaneous injection. The study was published in the journal Science. Following this, the research team is working with Novo Nordisk to further develop the technology and optimize the manufacturing process for the capsules. They believe this type of drug delivery could be useful for any protein drug that normally has to be injected, such as immunosuppressants used to treat rheumatoid arthritis or inflammatory bowel disease. It may also work for nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA.