Search This Blog

Friday, May 21, 2010

Diabetes Pill Gives Hope to End Painful Injections

Insulin pill was thought of as something that will give hope to the diabetics. This was reported in August 2001. The claim was in a decade this would be a done deal. So on January 25, 2009 when I read the news that Diabetes Pill Gives Hope to End Painful Injections, I decided to revisit the news pertaining to this.

The every day injection of insulin they said will soon be a thing of the past. Apparently, a chemistry student has come up with the material that would enable the diabetics to take their insulin orally. This would be in the form of a pill.

Some people with diabetes are dependent on insulin to survive and have to give themselves injection three times a day. There had been efforts to replace these injections with oral insulin but these attempts failed because the harsh acids in the mouth, throat and stomach destroyed the pills, making them ineffective.

The new material, however, is a polymer with a gel-like consistency. This makes people think that it will be more effective because the insulin is protected from the harsh acids until it gets to the small intestine. It is there where it should be absorbed into the blood.

A graduate student from Purdue University, Aaron Foss, made this breakthrough. He said that the small intestine is less acidic and will enable the polymer to swell. This in turn will release the insulin. He presented his findings to the American Chemical Society during its 222nd national meeting.

The finding did well in the trials that showed up to 16% of the insulin could be carried to the bloodstream when in the past the figure was only 0.1%. Foss said that when he lowered the acidity after two hours, the material opened up that released the insulin.

He said it worked but he wanted to continue the research so that more insulin can be delivered. He therefore planned to change some parameters and to look at some other compounds and see if it can be further optimized. There was much hope in the finding.

Then on January 25, 2009, there was good news that Diabetes Pill Gives Hope to End Painful Injections. The news really excited me so here I am writing about this. This should be good news especially after it passes the human trials.

Diabetes UK found this interesting and welcomed it for anything that makes life easier for the diabetics is a real welcome news. They said it was too early in 2001 but the scientists were hopeful that this could be done within ten years. I will keep my fingers crossed that next year which is a decade from the first finding, that it should be here by then.

They've already experienced success on this that lowered the blood sugar level in animals after taking these pills. Let's hope and pray for their continued success as this will end the constant injections the diabetics have to endure; this will certainly add to their quality of life soon after the finalization of these pills with insulin.

No comments: