Marinesnail inspires fast-acting injectable insulin for better diabetes control uofuhealthcare nchembio
"There was always this idea that if one could design a very rapidly acting insulin analog, one could get much better control of blood sugar levels in people with diabetes," says Helena Safavi, Ph.D., a biologist at University of Copenhangen. She is co-corresponding author on the study with biochemist Christopher Hill, D.Phil., Vice Dean of Research for University of Utah School of Medicine, and Stanford protein chemist Danny Hung-Chieh Chou, Ph.D.
The cone snails' venomous insulins, which Safavi first discovered in a species called Conus geographus as a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of University of Utah professor Baldomero Olivera, caught the research team's attention because they don't form these clusters."The cone snail doesn't need to have insulin for storage. It wants to have something that very quickly acts to paralyze fish," Safavi says.
Once the team recognized Conus kinoshitai's unique biochemical tactics, Chou used that knowledge to develop a new hybrid insulin. The new molecule maintains the ability to bind to the humanbut does not form clusters, just like the original Conus geographus-inspired insulin. Chou says that at this point, the two hybrid insulin molecules, each based on venom from one of the two cone snail species, hold similar promise as potential therapeutics.
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