"Animal cells share some qualities with plant cells, but one key feature ours lack is a rigid cell wall. While this provides structure for plants, it’s also something scientists are increasingly looking at for use in new materials, cellulose technology and, now, insulin delivery."
I really hope this works out, and does not end up being super expensive. Simple, shelf-stable oral insulin seems like it would be a massive improvement.
As cool as it sounds, I remain sceptical of it’s viability. Oral insulin isn’t actually as good as injected because it is a slower method of getting into the system. Injected insulin doesn’t go into a vein, it’s under the skin where capillaries help distribute it faster. Oral insulin needs to pass the stomach, so can not enter the blood as fast. Being plant based is not really a factor for that.
In the trial on mice, the plant-based insulin was able to regulate blood sugar within 15 minutes, comparable to naturally secreted insulin. Mice treated with traditional insulin injections experienced crashing blood glucose levels leading to hypoglycemia.
This is kinda scaremongering. Improperly dosed insulin will always crash blood glucose. Plant insulin will have the same affect. 15 minutes in a mouse is probably a long time, given their size. 15 minutes is usually how long fast acting novorapid takes to start working, peaking at ~2hrs and lasting roughly 4hrs.
I’m not saying the findings aren’t useful or interesting, but there is always a level of hype around diabetes medicine. Expectations should be tempered.
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