Scientists have created an insulin tablet that can be taken orally, to replace the injections that diabetics must take several times a day, as a team from the University of British Columbia developed insulin tablets as effective as hormone injections, according to the British newspaper “Daily Mail”.
The newspaper said that the tablets can successfully deliver the dose to the liver rather than losing some of it as it travels through the stomach, and the first experiments were conducted on mice, and found great success in delivering insulin to the liver.
The newspaper added, more than 10% of Americans suffer from diabetes, and it leads to the death of about 100,000 people in the United States every year, noting that a research team developed oral tablets that can deliver insulin to the body without using needles..
The newspaper pointed out that scientists at the University of British Columbia (UBC) In Canada, they developed a pill that delivers a full dose of insulin to a person’s liver. Previous attempts to get oral insulin medication were thwarted after large doses ended up in the stomach — where they offer no value, she said, adding, many diabetics need multiple doses. of insulin to control their condition on a daily basis, as the ideal way to take insulin is by injecting small needles several times a day, explaining that this can be particularly inconvenient, impractical and more difficult than simply taking the pills.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed that 37 million Americans – or more than one in 10 – suffer from diabetes, adding that it is the eighth leading cause of death in America, and is responsible for just over 100,000 deaths each year. “These exciting results show that we are on the right track in developing a formulation of insulin that will no longer need to be injected before every meal, and improve the quality of life, as well as the mental health, of more than 9 million type 1 diabetics.”
Insulin is naturally produced in the pancreas, then travels to the liver where it helps manipulate blood sugar, Dr. Anubhav Pratap Singh, associate professor of food processing at the University of British Columbia and lead investigator on the study, said in a statement..
He emphasized that a person with type 1 diabetes does not produce enough insulin to control blood sugar – this is, if any, explaining that all type 1 diabetics need some type of insulin dose to control their condition, people with diabetes may need Also from type 2 to InsulinThe amount of the substance that the body naturally produces may not be enough to deal with high blood sugar, noting that the tablets often take two to four hours to deliver a dose.
Dr Alberto Baldelli, one of the senior colleagues who was involved in the research, said: ‘Similar to a rapid-acting insulin injection, our tablet is absorbed orally after half an hour and can last for two to four hours. Through the body, the results of the experiments were promising, explaining that the tablets go to the liver directly and this is the ideal target for insulin.
The Columbia University team hopes this new invention will help fill that gap for those whose pancreas doesn’t produce enough insulin, and give them an easier option to receive doses.