Oral Insulin Treatment Developed

Domestic research team allegedly developed an oral insulin carrier, which a diabetic patient can easily take instead of everyday insulin injection.

Dr. Jeong Seo-Young team from the Biomedical Research Center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced that it successfully developed an insulin carrier, whose size is 3 thousandths wide of a hair or 300 nm (1 nano meter is one billionth of a meter), and it emits insulin for 6 hours in the patient`s body.

Dr. Jeong announced the research result on the `Diabetologia` an authoritative magazine of diabetic in March, and applied for 6 patents in and out of the country.

The carrier named `Nano Cubicle` can deliver insulin to lever without deterioration by gastric acid or digestive enzyme, as it is covered with fat tissue of mono-olein.

Dr. Jeong said, “ oral insulin carrier that U.S. Purdue Univ. developed has the highest absorptiveness of 16 percent so far. We made clinical test on 25 diabetic mice using this insulin carrier, and found out its absorptiveness reached 35 percent with high possibility of commercialization. ”

Dr. Jeong added, “insulin injection makes patients feel hurt, and density of insulin in the blood easily soar and fall. But oral insulin has the merit of keeping insulin density evenly for a long time. ”

Presently, some 15 world famous pharmaceutical companies are developing oral insulin formulas, which scarcely have commercial merit due to low absorptiveness.

dongho@donga.com