By Michael Irving
Stanford’s new hydrogel, loaded with diabetes-controlling drugs, inside a syringe ready for injection
Andrea Ivana d’Aquino
Managing diabetes usually involves regular shots of insulin or other drugs, but soon patients might only need to inject themselves a few times a year. Stanford has developed a hydrogel-based delivery system that slowly releases drugs over months to control diabetes and even weight.
An effective and relatively recent form of diabetes treatment involves drugs that mimic a hormone called glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), which manages insulin release and reduces appetite. These include FDA-approved drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro, which also seem to have the bonus benefit of weight loss. These drugs are usually administered weekly, while the more familiar insulin shots are needed daily. Either way, that strict routine can be quite a burden on patients – and this is the problem that the Stanford team is tackling.
“Adherence is one of the biggest challenges in Type 2 diabetes management,” said Eric Appel, principal investigator on the study. “Needing only three shots a year would make it much easier for people with diabetes or obesity to stick with their drug regimens.”
To achieve this, the team developed a hydrogel that can be infused with GLP-1 molecules, then injected under the skin. Once there, it slowly dissolves and releases the drugs at the right dose for an extended period of time. The scientists designed the hydrogel so that it could be fluid enough to be injected using regular syringes, but stable enough to last several months – and for the drug depot to be small enough to not cause discomfort in the patient.
In tests in rats with type 2 diabetes, injections of the drug-loaded hydrogel once every 42 days resulted in better management of blood glucose and weight than daily shots of conventional drugs.
That 42-day routine in rats is the equivalent of four months in humans, the team says. This timeframe was chosen to coincide with the usual checkup regimen, meaning patients could get their shots as part of routine doctor visits. However, the researchers say they’ve been able to tune the hydrogel to release drugs over a few days or even up to six months, which could make it a solid delivery system for a range of other drugs like anti-inflammatories or cancer therapies.
The next round of tests will be conducted in pigs, because they have more human-like skin and endocrine systems. Human trials could begin in as little as 18 months to two years, the team says.
The research was published in the journal Cell Reports Medicine.
Source: Stanford
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