New Rays of hope in Oral Insulin development from India

     Indian company Biocon is very near to the development of an oral insulin product. Company reported that they have received positive results from the early stages of clinical trials on its oral insulin product IN-105. IN-105 is a new molecule that has been developed by Biocon at its facilities in Bangalore.

     If successful, the product would make it feasible for diabetics to be given a treatment in tablet form rather than through injections. The molecule is stable at room temperature, according to the company, making it easy to store.

A New Class of Diabetic Drug From Mayoclinic

     Scientists at the Mayo Clinic have developed a molecule to treat diabetes based on blocking the breakdown of insulin in the body.

     "The discovery may lead to drugs that diabetics can use to help insulin work better and longer", says the study's lead researcher, Malcolm Leissring, Ph.D., in a press release from the Mayo Clinic's Department of Neuroscience.
The researchers say their findings, published in the May issue of PLoS ONE, could lay the foundation for a new class of drugs for treating diabetes. The tiny molecules they developed work by inhibiting a powerful molecular machine known as insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) from chewing up the insulin hormone. That keeps insulin in the body longer to help remove glucose (simple food sugar) from the blood.

     IDE is a protease, an enzyme that chops proteins or peptides into smaller pieces. According to Dr. Leissring, inhibitors have been developed for practically all biomedically important proteases in the body. "It was very surprising that IDE inhibitors had not been developed before, particularly given IDE's special relationship with insulin, a very important hormone," he says.

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