Diabetics may only have to inject once a week
By Ryan Prosser
Treatment for millions with type one diabetes worldwide is set to be revolutionised by a game-changing insulin that responds to changing blood levels.
The solution involves smart insulin that would come into action whenever needed within the body, and would be as close to a cure as existing drug therapy.
Scientists have developed novel insulin which mimics bodily changes in blood sugar levels, reducing the number of times suffers need to treat themselves to as little as once a week.
Type one diabetics currently must inject themselves with synthetic insulin up to ten times daily.
While these existing insulins help to stabilise blood sugar levels when injected into the body, they are unable to respond to subsequent changes.
In the future, patients may only need to take the newly developed insulin once a week, experts believe. Millions of pounds of funding has been awarded to fast-track the development of the new glucose responsive insulin (GRI), the Guardian reported.
Teams at Stanford University in the US, Monash University in Australia and Zhejiang University in China are among those that have received £3million for six research projects to develop smart insulins.
Four of the projects are aimed at developing new GRIs, while another has been launched to find a ultra-fast acting variant.
Dr Tim Heise, the vice-chair of the novel insulins scientific advisory panel for the Type 1 Diabetes Grand Challenge said the new GRIs would be the 'holy grail' of insulin.
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