Glycoinsulin : New Fibril Free Insulin Compound Developed To Improve Therapy For Diabetes Patients
Source: Thailand Medical News Jan 10, 2020 4 years, 11 months, 2 weeks, 8 hours, 48 minutes ago
A breakthrough discovery that could improve the clinical delivery of
insulin for people living with
diabetes, medical scientists from Australia have developed a
non-fibrillating form of human
insulin.
Utilizing a novel glycosylation technique, an international research team led by Associate Professor Dr Akhter Hossain from the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, has successfully synthesised an
insulin analogue called
glycoinsulin that demonstrates the same glucose-lowering effects as native i
nsulin in preclinical studies without
fibril formation.
Most often,
fibrils can arise when
insulin compounds aggregate together forming clumps. For people with
diabetes who rely on pump infusions to administer i
nsulin,
fibrils pose serious risk in blocking the delivery of
insulin which can potentially lead to life threatening under-dosing.
Dr Hossain said that the discovery of
glycoinsulin presents a promising solution for patients.
Dr Hossain told
Thailand Medical News, "Not only did our research demonstrate that
glycoinsulin does not form
fibrils, even at high temperature and concentration, but also that it is more stable in human serum than native i
nsulin. Together these findings could position
glycoinsulin as an excellent candidate for use in
insulin pumps and a way to improve the shelf life of
insulin products. We now hope to streamline the manufacturing process for
glycoinsulin so this compound can be further investigated in larger, clinical studies."
More than 25,000 people in Australia and 350,000 people in the United States use
insulin pumps as part of their
diabetes management.
Insulin pump infusion sets are required to be replaced every 24 hours to 72 hours to mitigate the occurrence of
fibrils, in what can cause significant patient burden and medicine wastage. In the USA alone, more than US$1 billion could be saved per year if the usage period for
insulin increased from two to six days.
Significant to the success of the study was the engineering of an
insulin-sugar complex from egg yolks using a method jointly developed by collaborators, Associate Professor Ryo Okamoto and Professor Yasuhiro Kajihara, from Osaka University, Japan.
Dr John Wade, a Professor from the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health who co-led the research commented to Th
ailand
Medical News on the landmark success of the research, "Typically, the chemical modification of
insulin causes structural destabilisation and inactivation, but we were able to successfully synthesise
glycoinsulin in a way that retains its
insulin-like helical structure. The result is an almost fully active insulin analogue which has demonstrated near-native binding to insulin receptors in both lab and animal studies."
Professor Greg Johnson, CEO of
Diabetes Australia welcomed the research findings saying they had the potential to make life easier for people living with
diabetes who use
insulin pumps.
Professor Johnson commented, "It is nearly 100 years since the discovery of
insulin and it's very exciting that we see new discoveries for
insulin, and
insulin-like molecules, that have the potential to ease the day to day burden and cost for people with
diabetes.”
Reference : Mohammed Akhter Hossain et al, Total Chemical Synthesis of a Nonfibrillating Human Glycoinsulin, Journal of the American Chemical Society (2019). DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b11424
