An insulin pill, which would revolutionise the way in which diabetics are required to take medicatio...
An insulin pill, which would revolutionise the way in which diabetics are required to take medication, looks set to become a reality.
The findings of a study published in the medical journal, Biomacromolecules, showed the pill, developed by Taiwanese scientists at the National Tsing Hua University, is designed from a chemical found in the nanoparticle shells of shrimps.
The shell can help to protect the drug from being destroyed by stomach acid, as drugs that contain protein chemicals, including insulin, are unable to survive exposure to stomach acid if swallowed, and the only viable alternative to injections is a nasal spray.
The researchers have discovered a way to encase the drug in a shell, which would resist stomach acid and other digestive fluids, and yet would be small enough to pass through the cells lining the small intestine and release their cargo into the bloodstream.
However, a spokeswoman for Diabetes UK urged caution against diabetics expecting a pill to be available soon. She said: "At this stage the medication has only been tested on rats, at a time when they hadn't eaten for 12 hours."
She said that there are currently 700,000 people in the UK who take insulin injections, so being able to take insulin orally would have a great impact on their quality of life. "We would welcome further studies looking at making the medication more efficient and establishing its suitability for use in all insulin users," she added.
