Insulin Altered to Lie Dormant Until Needed
Excerpt By Martha Kerr, Reuters Health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Scientists in California have developed a way to modify insulin that may allow diabetics to store the sugar-processing hormone in their bodies until it is needed.

People with type 1, or insulin-dependent, diabetes produce little or no insulin, a hormone that regulates the amount of sugar in the blood. To maintain healthy levels of blood sugar, they must take insulin, often by injection. Another option is to use an insulin pump, a device implanted in the body that provides a continuous supply of the hormone.

Dr. Jerrold M. Olefsky of the University of California at San Diego and colleagues are working on an insulin delivery technique that could one day provide a more convenient way for people with diabetes to maintain their blood sugar levels. Their findings are published in the November 20th issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers modified insulin so that it is dormant until activated by 38C2, a type of protein called a catalytic aldolase antibody. The idea is that a diabetic person could take insulin, which would then be stored in the body until a drug containing the antibody activated the hormone.

In laboratory tests, the altered form of insulin was much less effective at processing sugar. The modified insulin was 90% less likely to bind to insulin receptors. And its ability to process sugar was reduced by 96%.

But when Olefsky's team added the antibody, the properties of the modified insulin were restored to normal. When the researchers tested the system in rats, they achieved similar results.

According to Olefsky and his colleagues, the approach ``may represent a new avenue of therapeutics'' for treating diabetes.

SOURCE: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2001;98:13514-

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