THURSDAY, Jan. 10, 2013 — A landmark discovery about how insulin binds to the surface of cells could help improve the insulin treatments available for people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melboune, Australia, report in the journal Nature.
For more than 20 years, diabetes researchers have tried to find out exactly how insulin physically binds, or attaches itself, to a cell's insulin receptor. Associate professor Mike Lawrence, MD, who led the study, explained in a release: "We have now found that the insulin hormone engages its receptor in a very unusual way. Both insulin and its receptor undergo rearrangement as they interact — a piece of insulin folds out and key pieces within the receptor move to engage the insulin hormone. You might call it a 'molecular handshake'."
Insulin binding is necessary for the cells to take up sugar from the blood as energy, which is why type 1 diabetics, whose bodies do not produce insulin, must replace this missing insulin with injections.
Now that it is known how insulin binds to cell receptors, Lawrence and his team believe that more sophisticated insulin treatments could be next. "This discovery could conceivably lead to new types of insulin that could be given in ways other than injection, or an insulin that has improved properties or longer activity so that it doesn't need to be taken as often," he said. "It may also have ramifications for diabetes treatment in developing nations, by creating insulin that is more stable and less likely to degrade when not kept cold, an angle being pursued by our collaborators. Our findings are a new platform for developing these kinds of medications."
Any clinical application for this research is still a long ways off — new drug therapies require rigorous research and development and clinical trials before approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is even considered. But Lawrence says now that this information is available to drug makers, it will serve as a reference point for all future design of insulin.
There are now 371 million people around the world living with diabetes — about half of whom don't even know they have the disease — according to the latest figures from the International Diabetes Federation, and that number is projected to rise to 552 million by 2030.
Last Updated: 1/10/2013