A Novel Injectable Hydrogel Could Reduce Diabetes Medication Frequency to Just Three Shots a Year

Thursday - November 23 2023, 14:38 UTC - 12 months ago

A team of researchers at Stanford University has developed a novel hydrogel that contains four months' worth of medicine for a diabetic patient. This could make it easier for people to take their medicine, improve the quality of life for patients, and reduce complications associated with managing diabetes. The hydrogel is liquid enough to be easily injected with regular needles and solid enough to last for four months inside the body, and has shown promising results in both a rat animal model and a pig model.

Most people with diabetes have Type 2 diabetes. It's a problem with how the body handles sugar, and it can lead to serious health issues. Sometimes, people don't take their medicine as they should because of side effects or complicated treatment plans. The challenge is that these medicines usually need to be taken often, and not everyone sticks to the treatment plan. So, scientists are working on creating versions of these medicines that can be given less frequently, maybe just once every four months. This could make it easier for people to stick to their treatment and improve their health.

A team of researchers at Stanford University has developed a novel hydrogel that contains four months' worth of medicine for a diabetic patient. This means that the patient doesn't have to take diabetic medication daily. The hydrogel is liquid enough to be easily injected with regular needles and solid enough to last for four months inside the body. This could make it easier for people to take their medicine, improve the quality of life for patients, and reduce complications associated with managing diabetes.

"Needing only three shots a year would make it much easier for people with diabetes or obesity to stick with their drug regimens," said Eric Appel, co-author of the study and associate professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford.

The researchers conducted the study in a rat animal model. They found that the new medicinal technology can carry diabetes and weight control medicines like GLP-1 drugs. These medicines not only control blood sugar but also have other benefits, like reducing the risk of heart disease and helping with weight loss.

The researchers explained in their study that tiny particles inside the hydrogel make up a net-like structure. This net holds the medicine, and when it's time for the drug to be dispersed, it slowly dissolves, letting the medicine be injected into the body.

"Our hydrogel melts away over many months like a sugar cube dissolving in water, molecule by molecule," explained Appel. "I often refer to the mesh being held together by a sort of molecular Velcro that sticks together quite well but then can be easily pulled apart." .

There are about 500 million people with diabetes or prediabetes in the world. In the United States alone, there are over 130 million. Treating diabetes costs around $400 billion annually to the U.S. government, making it one of the most expensive diseases in the world.

The researchers plan on conducting human trials within 1.5-2 years after successfully testing their new technology in a pig model. The study was published in the journal Cell.

Study abstract: Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is an incretin hormone and neurotransmitter secreted from intestinal L cells in response to nutrients to stimulate insulin and block glucagon secretion in a glucose-dependent manner. Long-acting GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) have become central to treating type 2 diabetes (T2D); however, these therapies are burdensome, as they must be taken daily. Here, we describe a net-like injectable hydrogel that over 4 months in a large animal model releases biologically active doses of GLP-1 RAs, enabling 3 monthly GLP-1 RA dosing periods.