• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Monday, August 4, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Chemistry

‘Smart’ insulin could prevent hypoglycemia during diabetes treatment

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
May 19, 2019
in Chemistry
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Development by UCLA-led research team works to keep blood sugar at normal levels

IMAGE

Credit: Hongjun Li/ UCLA Engineering

UCLA bioengineers and their colleagues have developed a new type of insulin that could help prevent hypoglycemia in people who use the drug to manage diabetes.

The treatment is being evaluated for potential clinical trials and, if successful, could change diabetes care. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Insulin is a hormone naturally produced in the pancreas. It helps the body regulate glucose, which is consumed through food and provides the body with energy.

Diabetes occurs when a person’s body does not naturally produce insulin (Type 1 diabetes), or does not efficiently use the insulin that is produced (Type 2). In either case, a regular dosage of insulin is prescribed to manage the disease, which affects more than 400 million people worldwide.

Generally, people who need to use insulin monitor their blood sugar levels with a glucose meter or continuous glucose monitoring system and then calculate their insulin dose accordingly. In addition, a regular carbohydrate intake is important to keep the blood sugar levels normal. Both of these requirements are necessarily subject to human error, which can have potentially devastating consequences.

An overdose of insulin can cause hypoglycemia, when blood sugar is too low. That could lead to seizures, coma, and in extreme cases, death.

As a safety check, the UCLA-led team has developed a type of “smart” insulin, called i-insulin, that can prevent blood sugar levels from dipping too low.

Inside the body, insulin acts as a “key” to help glucose get into cells from the bloodstream. When insulin attaches to a cell’s surface, it activates a protein inside the cell, called glucose transporter, which then makes its way to the cell’s surface. This molecule then brings the surrounding glucose from the blood into the cell.

The research team added an additional molecule to insulin to create the new smart insulin. This added molecule, called a glucose transporter inhibitor, chemically blocks the glucose transporter molecule that has come to the surface. Its presence doesn’t block all glucose from entering, nor does it permanently block the transporter molecules. Instead, it’s part of a dynamic process that depends on how many inhibitor and glucose molecules are present.

“Our new i-insulin works like a ‘smart’ key,” said the study’s principal investigator Zhen Gu, a professor of bioengineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. “The insulin lets glucose get into the cell, but the added inhibitor molecule prevents too much from going in when blood sugar is normal. This keeps blood sugar at normal levels and reduces the risk of hypoglycemia.”

“This i-insulin can also rapidly respond to high glucose levels,” added Jinqiang Wang, the study’s co-lead author and a postdoctoral researcher in Gu’s research group. “For example, after a meal, when glucose levels climb, the insulin level in the bloodstream also quickly increases, which helps normalize the glucose level.”

The UCLA-led research team tested the smart insulin on mice with Type 1 diabetes. The i-insulin controlled glucose levels within the normal range for up to 10 hours after a first injection. A second injection three hours later extended the protection from hypoglycemia.

“The next step is to further evaluate the long-term biocompatibility of the modified insulin system in an animal model before determining whether to move to clinical trials,” said co-author Dr. John Buse, director of the Diabetes Care Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. The vision, if realized, would be one of the most exciting advances in diabetes care.”

“The new insulin has the potential to be optimized for response times and how long it could last in the body before another dose would be required,” Gu said. “And it could be delivered in other methods, such as a skin patch that automatically monitors blood sugar levels, or in pills.”

###

The study’s other lead author is Jicheng Yu, chief scientific officer of pharmaceutical company Zenomics and a former doctoral student in Gu’s lab.

Study authors at UCLA are bioengineering postdoctoral scholars Zejun Wang and Jun Fang; Julian Whitelegge, an adjunct professor at UCLA’s Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior; and UCLA bioengineering professor Song Li. Other authors are listed in the journal article.

Gu is also a member of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and the California NanoSystems Institute.

At the University of North Carolina, Buse is also the executive associate dean for clinical research, chief of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, and director of The North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences (NC TraCS) Institute. The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and by JDRF, an international diabetes research organization.

The authors have applied for a patent on the technology.

Media Contact
Amy Akmal
[email protected]

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1901967116

Tags: BiochemistryBiomedical/Environmental/Chemical EngineeringBiotechnologyClinical TrialsDiabetesDiagnosticsHealth CareMedicine/HealthMetabolism/Metabolic DiseasesTechnology/Engineering/Computer Science
Share14Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Mapping Brain Chemistry Through Humanity’s Evolutionary Journey

Mapping Brain Chemistry Through Humanity’s Evolutionary Journey

August 4, 2025
Pan Feng’s Team Pioneers Inverse Design of Catalytic Materials Using Topological AI

Pan Feng’s Team Pioneers Inverse Design of Catalytic Materials Using Topological AI

August 4, 2025

DGIST Advances Ultrasound Wireless Charging for Implantable Medical Devices

August 4, 2025

Advancing Clinical Gait Analysis with Generative AI and Musculoskeletal Simulation

August 4, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • blank

    Neuropsychiatric Risks Linked to COVID-19 Revealed

    68 shares
    Share 27 Tweet 17
  • Overlooked Dangers: Debunking Common Myths About Skin Cancer Risk in the U.S.

    61 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15
  • Predicting Colorectal Cancer Using Lifestyle Factors

    46 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 12
  • Dr. Miriam Merad Honored with French Knighthood for Groundbreaking Contributions to Science and Medicine

    46 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 12

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Mapping Alveolar Cell Regeneration in Pulmonary Fibrosis

Neonatal HIE and Acute Kidney Injury Risks Evaluated

Promising New Alternative to Opioids Unveiled

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.