July 13, 2010: There may be a new hope for India’s more than 40 million diabetics, many of whom have to inject themselves with insulin a number of times during the in order to manage their disease. A team of Indian researchers have created a form of insulin that they say lasts for up to 120 days in rats and mice, with only a single injection. If useful in humans, a single insulin injection could last for several days.

“People are afraid of pricking themselves and this leads to problems of patient compliance,” Avadhesha Surolia, acting director of the Delhi-based National Institute of Immunology and one of the researchers, told HT.

“Since insulin is still the best treatment for diabetes, we set out to create a form of insulin that provides a controlled release.”

Although the researchers focused on type 1 diabetes, in which the body attacks its own insulin-producing mechanism, it could also work for type 2, the form known as ‘adult onset’.

The research took three years, and the findings are scheduled to appear sometime this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences. The findings have already been licensed to an American company, which will test the new form of insulin in humans.

The number of people affected with diabetes is predicted to rise sharply in the coming years. Research has shown that Indians are more prone to develop diabetes thanks to a high-fat diet and a tendency to gain weight in the abdomen. (Anika Gupta, HT)