Diabetes, that great known and unknown at the same time, is the disease in which there is a high level of sugar in the blood due to the inability of the body to produce or use insulin, which is the hormone responsible for transforming sugars into energy.
Children and young adults are often diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, where the body does not produce insulin. On the contrary, if the body produces insulin but cannot use it, we speak of type 2 diabetes.
People with type 1 diabetes need to administer insulin by subcutaneous injection, and those with type 2 are usually treated with oral antidiabetics, proper nutrition, and exercise. However, they may need to be pricked.
There are other types of diabetes, such as MODY (Maturity-Onset Diabetes of the Young) or juvenile-onset adult-onset diabetes, which consists of an alteration in the ability of the pancreas to generate insulin.
LADA type diabetes, where the patient's immune system gradually attacks the cells that produce insulin in the pancreas, cannot forget gestational diabetes, similar to type 2 diabetes in pregnant women.
Regardless of the type of diabetes, it affects millions of people globally, and most of them must control their blood sugar levels through insulin injections. This invasive method causes discomfort and pain in these patients.
Insulin aims to mimic the function of the pancreas. This organ continuously secretes insulin so that the body's cells can capture sugars from the blood and transform them into energy.
The problem that we find is that when we have to administer that insulin, we cannot do it orally because the gastric juices destroy it; therefore, we have to puncture it or find a way to help it orally without it being killed in the stomach, and this It is what researchers have developed through the creation of a capsule the size of a raisin that transports insulin and that will avoid the thousands of punctures that a diabetic patient has to take throughout life.
This capsule is administered orally. It is covered with a substance not destroyed by gastric juices and can intact the small intestine. It opens, giving rise to soluble microneedles that bind to the intestinal wall, releasing insulin.
The capsule's design is intended to be directed to the stomach, regardless of the movements it may undergo, as it is prepared to reorient itself automatically. The microneedles dissolve in about an hour, releasing the insulin into the bloodstream, but according to the study, the speed of the doses can be adjusted.
The research has been carried out in fasting pigs, with capsules that can contain the dose of insulin administered by injection, from 0.3 mg to 5 mg of insulin, which is the dose that patients usually inject.
- Although it is still under study, it is a light of hope for those patients who must pierce their skin daily to treat their disease.
Insulin in pills: the end of the diabetes injection
Diabetes, that great known and unknown at the same time, is the disease in which there is a high level of sugar in the blood due to the inability of the body to produce or use insulin, which is the hormone responsible for transforming sugars into energy.
Children and young adults are often diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, where the body does not produce insulin. On the contrary, if the body produces insulin but cannot use it, we speak of type 2 diabetes.
People with type 1 diabetes need to administer insulin by subcutaneous injection, and those with type 2 are usually treated with oral antidiabetics, proper nutrition, and exercise. However, they may need to be pricked.
There are other types of diabetes, such as MODY (Maturity-Onset Diabetes of the Young) or juvenile-onset adult-onset diabetes, which consists of an alteration in the ability of the pancreas to generate insulin.
LADA type diabetes, where the patient's immune system gradually attacks the cells that produce insulin in the pancreas, cannot forget gestational diabetes, similar to type 2 diabetes in pregnant women.
Regardless of the type of diabetes, it affects millions of people globally, and most of them must control their blood sugar levels through insulin injections. This invasive method causes discomfort and pain in these patients.
Insulin aims to mimic the function of the pancreas. This organ continuously secretes insulin so that the body's cells can capture sugars from the blood and transform them into energy.
The problem that we find is that when we have to administer that insulin, we cannot do it orally because the gastric juices destroy it; therefore, we have to puncture it or find a way to help it orally without it being killed in the stomach, and this It is what researchers have developed through the creation of a capsule the size of a raisin that transports insulin and that will avoid the thousands of punctures that a diabetic patient has to take throughout life.
This capsule is administered orally. It is covered with a substance not destroyed by gastric juices and can intact the small intestine. It opens, giving rise to soluble microneedles that bind to the intestinal wall, releasing insulin.
The capsule's design is intended to be directed to the stomach, regardless of the movements it may undergo, as it is prepared to reorient itself automatically. The microneedles dissolve in about an hour, releasing the insulin into the bloodstream, but according to the study, the speed of the doses can be adjusted.
The research has been carried out in fasting pigs, with capsules that can contain the dose of insulin administered by injection, from 0.3 mg to 5 mg of insulin, which is the dose that patients usually inject.
Related Articles