The National Institutes of Health gave a $2.1 million grant to UT researchers to find a way to create an insulin pill that would eliminate the use of injection for diabetes patients.
"The insulin pill would create a less invasive and more convenient way for the millions of patients that use injections to medicate themselves," said Joan Chamberlain, a representative of NIH, a federal agency that supports medical research.
Nearly 1 million Americans are effected by Type I diabetes, which usually begins in childhood and is treated most effectively with insulin shots. Type II diabetes, often referred to as adult onset, begins later in life. Type II, a progressive form of the disease, effects nearly 17 million Americans, 30 percent of which use insulin injections once the disease has advanced.
For diabetics, the new pill could make coping with the disease easier and would allow more privacy, said Joseph M. Phillips, a diabetic and a UT extension professor of American history and journalism. It would be better to not have to carry around all of the equipment needed for the injections, he said.
The drug would also help with administering insulin to children affected by diabetes, Phillips said. "It would be a major benefit for children, because when you're young the fear of the needle is so great," he said.
Insulin functions in the bloodstream, which is why injections have been the most effective method so far, said Nicholas A. Peppas, leader of the research and a professor of chemical and biomedical engineering and pharmaceuticals. "The purpose of this research is to find a way to protect the insulin until it passes through the cells and into the blood," Peppas said.
The pill would be taken orally, but a problem the researchers are trying to confront is making sure the insulin gets past the saliva, the esophagus and the stomach acids and then into the bloodstream, Peppas said.
Although the pill would "make life simpler," Phillips said what he would like to see as a diabetic is something that would allow the body to function normally and produce insulin. Phillips said he hopes one day the pill will be advanced enough to only need to be taken once a day.
"It would be nice to not have to announce to the world that I'm a diabetic," he said.
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