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Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Lilly, Incyte: Baricitinib Reduced Deaths In COVID-19 Patients Under Invasive Mechanical Ventilation

 Eli Lilly and Co. (LLY) and Incyte (INCY) Tuesday said that new data from Phase 3 COV-BARRIER sub-study indicated that baricitinib reduced deaths among patients with COVID-19 receiving invasive mechanical ventilation.

As per the data, one death prevented for every six baricitinib-treated patients on mechanical ventilation compared to placebo.

Baricitinib is an oral JAK inhibitor discovered by Incyte and licensed to Lilly.

Lilly said it intends to publish detailed results from this additional sub-study in a peer-reviewed journal and present the findings at a medical meeting in the coming months. These new data from the COV-BARRIER sub-study will also be shared with regulatory authorities in the U.S., European Union and other geographies.

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/lilly-incyte%3A-baricitinib-reduced-deaths-in-covid-19-patients-under-invasive-mechanical

Monday, August 2, 2021

Florida and Texas 1/3 of all new U.S. coronavirus cases last week: White House

 States with low vaccination rates are driving a new coronavirus wave sweeping over the nation, with the much more transmissible Delta strain filling hospitals across the southern U.S.

Two states, Texas and Florida, stand out as hot spots, accounting for a full third of all new cases nationwide last week, White House pandemic response coordinator Jeff Zients revealed during a Monday press briefing. Over the weekend, Florida had the unwelcome distinction of breaking a national record, reporting 21,000 new cases, the most for one day in any state since the pandemic began in early 2020.

“From the start, we’ve known this virus is unpredictable,” Zients said. Last month, President Biden all but declared victory over the coronavirus, saying in a July 4 speech that it “no longer paralyzes our nation.” Even then, however, the Delta variant was proliferating with increasing speed across the country. The president’s triumphalism has been called premature, giving people a false sense of security.

Republican governors like Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas had not waited for Biden to herald the pandemic’s end, with DeSantis in particular having spent much of the summer basking in conservative adulation over his handling of the pandemic. Criticism of that approach has grown louder of late, especially as localities seek to impose new mask mandates in keeping with new guidance issued last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

DeSantis and Abbott have vigorously fought such mandates in recent days, reviving a long-simmering culture war. Public health experts, meanwhile, say that masks can help blunt the one advantage the Delta variant appears to enjoy: its increased transmissibility.

Overall, the coronavirus vaccines remain exceptionally good at preventing infection in the first place. And even when vaccinated people do become infected with the Delta variant, they tend to experience only mild illness. But they still can spread the coronavirus, as a recent case study of a Provincetown, Mass., cluster showed. It was the Provincetown cluster that forced the CDC to come out in favor of masking in areas of high or substantial viral activity.

Because most people in Provincetown were vaccinated, only seven out of about 900 people in the cluster ended up in the hospital. Even more significant, none died. “Our vaccines did exactly what they were supposed to do,” said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky on Monday. In addition, she noted that authorities there quickly reimposed a mask mandate, a decision that helped end the outbreak.

Vaccination rates in Provincetown are among the highest in Massachusetts, which is the second-most vaccinated state in the nation after Vermont. And there appeared to be little resistance to masking among its residents and visitors.

That doesn’t make Provincetown an especially instructive case when it comes to tracking the progress of the pandemic nationwide. Zients said that the seven states with the lowest vaccination rates (Alabama, Mississippi, Wyoming, Arkansas, Louisiana, Idaho and Georgia) account for 8.5 percent of the U.S. population but 17 percent of all new cases.

“This remains a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Walensky reminded on Monday, “where the vast majority of spread in this country is among those who are unvaccinated.”

Texas has fully vaccinated 44 percent of its residents, while Florida has immunized 49 percent. DeSantis spent much of the spring lashing out against vaccine mandates and passports. He also recently invited Mark McDonald, an anti-vaccine advocate from Los Angeles, to a pandemic summit.

https://news.yahoo.com/florida-and-texas-accounted-for-one-third-of-all-new-us-coronavirus-cases-last-week-white-house-says-215900063.html


America's Chinese Fentanyl Flood

 by Grant Newsham via The Epoch Times,

Foreigners have been buying—or at least renting—America’s ruling class since the republic was founded. Almost exactly 225 years ago, in his 1796 Farewell Address, George Washington warned against “the insidious wiles of foreign influence,” adding that “foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.”

In modern times, Saudis, Japanese, South Koreans, and Israelis—to name a few—have all managed to purchase influence. But the usual goal is to gain advantages for their own nations. What we are seeing now is something much more dangerous—using influence to corrode the United States from within.

One nation is pouring highly addictive and unpredictable illicit drugs into the American bloodstream - killing tens of thousands a year. And the American elites are doing absolutely nothing about it. Now THAT is influence.

The drug? Fentanyl. The country? Communist China.

Fentanyl mostly originates in China, often moving via Mexico (and Mexican drug gangs) into the United States. The Chinese are also into the money laundering part of the business—helping drug gangs launder (or recycle) their massive earnings. Talk about a “win-win”—as the Chinese communists like to say.

Casualties

The deluge started around 2013 and has picked up steadily since then. The numbers are staggering.

In 2017, 28,000 Americans died of overdoses involving fentanyl.

In a 2018 meeting with President Donald Trump, Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged to restrict all fentanyl-like substances. Trump declared this a “gamechanger.” Not surprisingly, the fentanyl and drugs kept flowing.

In 2019, over 37,000 Americans died from fentanyl overdoses. That’s nearly five times the number of American troops killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2020, the U.S. government reported 93,000 American residents died from a drug overdose—the vast majority from fentanyl poisoning. The COVID-19 lockdowns have helped bump up the already horrific death totals.

Yet, even as the death toll mounts, U.S. businesses and financial titans never mention it. The think tanks are mostly silent. Academia? Can’t be bothered. The U.S. media often downplays or ignores the fentanyl bloodbath, and even more so the source, seemingly afraid to mention the C-word, China.

Packets of fentanyl mostly in powder form and methamphetamine, which U.S. Customs and Border Protection say they seized from a truck crossing into Arizona from Mexico, is on display during a news conference at the Port of Nogales, Ariz., on Jan. 31, 2019. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection/Reuters)

And on Capitol Hill where there’s bold, blustery, “bi-partisan” talk about taking on the Chinese regime, when it comes to fentanyl and China one hears little.

Excuses

Even the Trump administration—the firmest yet in standing up to China—didn’t make so much of the fentanyl issue, though Mr. Trump raised it directly with Xi, and others did try.

One official suggested calling the “fentanyl scourge” the “Third Opium War.”  The response from inside the Beltway was immediate and visceral: “You can’t say that” (when it comes to China there’s all sort of things “you can’t say”).

In this case, the response was particularly curious as, in some quarters (including in China), there is a tendency to excuse Chinese non-cooperation as payback for the Opium Wars of the 19th century.

Payback? The Opium Wars were 180 years ago. By that logic, slave labor in Xinjiang is “payback” for the pre-Civil War plantations. How does creating new despair and death rectify old despair and death?

American elites also have plenty of other “insider” excuses for why the Chinese regime (or, better said, won’t) stop the illicit drug flow.

Three of the most common:

1) The Chinese regime is in a legal bind as fentanyl producers keep jiggering the formula to avoid the “illegal list” and therefore the producers are always one step ahead of a government that can’t revise laws fast enough, try as it might.

A nice excuse, but in China the law is what Xi and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) say it is, as even billionaire Jack Ma and any number of other powerful and well-connected Chinese tycoons and officials have discovered the hard way. If Beijing wants to shut down fentanyl producers the law is no obstacle.

2) Chinese local authorities, supposedly outside of Beijing’s reach, won’t stop fentanyl production since they want tax revenues and employment—and are also thoroughly corrupt.

True enough. But local officials are also frightened of being caught crossing Beijing—everyone knows what happed to Ma.

3) Chinese authorities can’t locate the illegal drug producers. China is a big place, you know.

The CCP is creating a surveillance state that even George Orwell couldn’t have imagined. Draw a mustache on a poster of Xi and see how long it takes to be arrested and imprisoned. Post on social media that Xi resembles Winnie the Pooh and you’ll have Ministry of State Security agents at your front door in minutes.

The CCP police can do whatever they want. “Disappear” people, arrest starlets, kidnap billionaires and booksellers—take foreigners hostage and lock them up? No problem. The only restraints come from Zhongnanhai—the very top of the CCP.

The fact the Chinese regime doesn’t ban fentanyl in its entirety—much less go after producers the way it goes after Uighurs, Christians and Falun Gong, or Hong Kongers—suggests the CCP is glad America is awash in fentanyl.

And when Trump told Xi to knock off the fentanyl flow back in 2018, Xi reportedly replied: “We don’t have a drug problem in China.” That means Xi can control the drugs and he’s channeling the chemical warfare agents—in true “unrestricted warfare fashion”—towards his #1 rival and greatest enemy. Most things involving the CCP just aren’t that hard to figure out.

The Effects of China’s Chemical Warfare

The carnage can’t be overstated. Fentanyl is ravaging all parts of American society. And about half of the deaths attributed to fentanyl are young people of military age.

As one former U.S. government official noted, this is the equivalent of removing five or six divisions of Army or Marines off the rolls every year. And don’t forget the “battlefield casualties” who survive but can no longer function as productive members of society, the burden and expense of caring for them, and the devastated families left broke and broken.

One hears elites who should know better say the victims are just “druggies” and wouldn’t have joined the military anyway. That’s malicious and wrong. Young people have been misbehaving for centuries, and that includes many who join the U.S. military. But a six-pack or a joint is one thing; a difficult to identify drug that is often mislabeled and unpredictably kills or permanently disables in minute quantities, is quite another.

From China’s perspective, what’s not to like? You’re weakening your avowed enemy, which you plan to dominate by mid-century. And, even better, the CCP makes a lot of money from the drug trade—and in convertible currency. Buy fentanyl and you pay in dollars.

Accomplices

While China is ultimately to blame, it is America’s own ruling class that refuses to do anything about it for fear of “offending” China. Or, more accurately, for fear of not being able to feed their own addiction—to Chinese money. Money that, in some small part, may have come from selling fentanyl to Americans in the first place.

Maybe overlooking 93,000 dead countrymen and exponentially more left in the wreckage in exchange for Chinese cash is easier when you think it’s just deplorables and Neanderthals in fly-over country who are dying.

It can’t be helped if these people were too stupid and lazy to “learn to code” or to get a Wharton MBA when their jobs, livelihoods, and communities were shipped overseas from the 1990s onwards—mostly to China—by those same political and business elites.

Countering ‘the Most Baneful Foes’

Watching America’s elites do nothing - or worse even calling for unrestricted engagement with the Chinese regime - one concludes that the Chinese have indeed gotten their money’s worth from America’s ruling class.

Just listen to the head of the U.S.–China Business Council, or the CEO of Boeing, or Nike, or Apple if you don’t believe me.

‘Chemical warfare’ as suspected 44 lbs of Fentanyl seized by law enforcement officials in Dayton, Ohio during the week of Oct. 21, 2019. (Montgomery County Ohio Sheriff’s Office)

Here’s an idea: require prospective graduates from elite MBA and International Relations programs, as well as Congressional staffers—and maybe even members of Congress themselves—to spend a couple of weeks in the so-called “Rust Belt” that’s been hit both by fentanyl and the carnage caused by the pedigreed classes when industries and jobs were shipped off to China.

Try: Youngstown, Ohio; Uniontown, Pennsylvania; Buffalo, New York; or East Cleveland, if you need some idea. Though the list could be much, much longer. Put them up in a local motel and require them to be outside on the streets from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. “soaking in the atmosphere.”

And maybe, for a break, accompany the EMTs out on drug overdose calls. Or stop off at the local high schools and sit in with the guidance counselors—just to get a sense of things and the bright futures too many of these kids face.

Is this likely? No.

One gets the impression America’s Best and Brightest just don’t care. They have become willing accomplices to the “baneful foes.”

This is particularly infuriating because we can fight back. China is not invulnerable. They’ve hit us where it hurts—in our families and communities. We need to hit them where it hurts—in their elites.

Message to President Joe Biden:

You have sworn to protect American citizens, not to ensure Wall Street and U.S. industry can take advantage of Xi’s umpteenth promise to “open up.”

So do one or, ideally more, of the following:

First, suspend all Chinese financial institutions from the U.S. dollar network. Start with the People’s Bank of China.

Second, immediately de-list every Chinese company from the New York Stock Exchange and other exchanges. They should not have been listed in the first place.

Third, revoke the Green Cards and visas—and place liens on the properties and bank accounts—of the top 500 CCP members’ relatives in the United States.

China can stop pushing drugs into America. It just needs a reason to do so. And we need to give them one. And, at the same time, we need to break our most “insidious” addiction, the one of our elites to Chinese money.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/americas-chinese-fentanyl-flood

Germany to Offer Coronavirus Booster Shots to At-Risk Individuals Next Month

 Germany will begin offering booster doses of the coronavirus vaccine to high-risk individuals beginning next month.

Health Minister Jens Spahn said in a statement on Monday that the country will begin administering booster vaccines to older people and those with underlying health conditions starting in September.

"With the option of a booster vaccination in September, we want to provide the best possible protection for the groups particularly at risk in the fall and winter. Because for them, the risk of a decline in vaccination protection is the greatest," Spahn said.

The booster doses will be "one of the two mRNA vaccines," but the health ministry did not specify the specific vaccine. The current mRNA vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency are those developed by Pfizer and Moderna.

The ministry added that it does not matter which vaccine the individual had first received.

Spahn also announced that children 12 to 17 years old will also be allowed to receive the COVID-19 vaccine after meeting with and getting more information from their doctor.

"We are keeping our promise: Everyone who wants to can be vaccinated this summer. We have enough vaccines for all age groups," Spahn said.

Approximately 52% of Germans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and nearly 62% have received at least one shot, according to the Robert Koch Institute, Germany's disease and control center.

The issue of booster vaccines has been widely discussed, especially as the highly transmissible delta variant causes COVID-19 cases to surge worldwide. Israel began administering booster doses to people 60 years and older last month. France is offering them to the eldery and at-risk. Health officials in Belgium and Italy say they are ready to administer the doses but are still deciding who gets them.

In the U.S., officials in the Biden administration increasingly believe that vulnerable populations will need booster doses.

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2021-08-02/germany-to-offer-coronavirus-booster-shots-to-at-risk-individuals-next-month

Coronavirus is rife in common US deer

 One-third of white-tailed deer in the north-eastern United States have antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 — a sign that they have been infected with the virus.

The findings, revealed by an analysis of samples collected after the pandemic began, represent the first detection of widespread exposure to the virus in a population of wild animals, says Arinjay Banerjee, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada. The results are reported in a preprint posted on bioRxiv on 29 July1. They have not yet been peer reviewed.

Researchers say the rapid exposure of a large number of animals to the virus is concerning, but that more studies are needed to assess whether the deer can infect each other — and other species — in the wild. “It’s an intriguing observation but still needs to be interpreted with caution,” says Aaron Irving, an infectious-diseases researcher at Zhejiang University in Haining, China.

The crucial questions are “how the virus spread to deer and if it will spread from infected deer to other wildlife or to domestic livestock such as cattle”, says Linda Saif, a virologist at the Ohio State University in Wooster.

The deer next door

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are abundant in North America, especially near urban centres in the eastern United States. Previous laboratory experiments have shown that the deer can become infected with SARS-CoV-2 and transmit the virus to other deer2. In the wild, these deer live in small herds, which means that the virus could spread naturally from an infected animal.

Researchers are concerned about the emergence of new animal ‘reservoirs’ — animal populations that harbour SARS-CoV-2. A pool of infected animals could provide a refuge where the virus could evolve in ways that threaten vaccine efficacy. A reservoir could also allow the virus to spread to other species and back to people, even after the pandemic subsides. Saif has documented other coronaviruses jumping between species. “Similar spillover into wildlife may now be occurring worldwide,” she says.

To assess that risk, Susan Shriner at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Fort Collins, Colorado, and her colleagues tested 385 blood samples collected as part of regular wildlife-surveillance activities between January and March 2021 in four US states — Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois and New York. They found that a striking 40% of the samples contained SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, which are produced in response to infection. None of the surveyed deer showed signs of illness.

The researchers’ testing of archived samples also turned up antibodies in 3 samples from early 2020, when SARS-CoV-2 was beginning to circulate in the United States. All told, one-third of the 2020 and 2021 samples had antibodies for the virus.

“Given the percentage of samples in this study that had detectable antibodies, as well as the high numbers of white-tailed deer throughout the United States and their close contact with people, it is likely that deer in other states have also been exposed to the virus,” says a spokesperson for the USDA.

“The data strongly suggest that this deer species was infected with SARS-CoV-2 at some point in time,” Banerjee says. But the researchers did not test the animals for viral RNA, which would be needed to establish whether they are an animal reservoir, he says.

Unknown sources

The real mystery, says Banerjee, is how the deer were exposed. It could have been through contact with people, other animals or even contaminated wastewater. “If there is a common source of exposure for the deer, then likely the same source can expose other animals.”

The results stress the importance of surveying deer, as well as their predators and other animals that have close contact with deer, for SARS-CoV-2, the researchers say.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02110-8

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02110-8

Internet CBT for depression reviewed and analyzed

 Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for depression is often just as effective as traditional CBT. This is clear from an international study involving scientists at the University of Gothenburg. However, some online treatments have components that can be harmful.

Internet CBT (iCBT) as a method of delivering treatment is on the increase. Nevertheless, it has been unclear to date which parts of the treatment are most helpful against depression, which are less efficacious and which are potentially detrimental to patients.

In an international study, researchers at the University of Gothenburg participated in a systematic literature review and meta-analysis. The study was based on 76 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in Sweden and elsewhere. In total, the RCTs included 17,521 patients, 71% of whom were women.

The study, under the aegis of Kyoto University in Japan, is now published in The Lancet Psychiatry. One coauthor is Cecilia Björkelund, Senior Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Gothenburg's Sahlgrenska Academy.

"In mild or moderate depression, the effect of iCBT is as good as that of conventional CBT. For many, it's a superb way of getting access to therapy without having to go to a therapist. We also saw that it was especially good for the elderly -- a finding we didn't entirely expect," she says.

Just as in traditional CBT, its online counterpart involves modifying patients' thoughts, feelings and behaviors that are obstacles in their lives and impair their mood. During the treatment, which often lasts about ten weeks, they are given tasks and exercises to perform on their own.

The factor that proved most significant for the prognosis was the depth of depression at the start of treatment. In milder depression, better results were obtained. Therapist support and text-message reminders increased the proportion of patients who completed the therapy.

"If you're going to use iCBT in health care, the programs have to be regulated just as well as drugs are, but that's not the case today. With this study, we're taking a real step forward. First, the study surveys what's most effective. Second, it provides knowledge of how to design a program and adapt its composition to patients' problems," Björkelund says.

However, iCBT requires continuous therapeutic contact. One reason is the importance of the therapist being able to see an improvement within three to four weeks, ensuring that the trend is not in the wrong direction. Björkelund stresses the great potential danger of depression. In severe depression, internet-mediated therapy is inappropriate.

The study shows the danger of using iCBT with programs that include relaxation therapy. Rather than being beneficial, this may have negative effects, exacerbating depressive symptoms and causing "relaxation-induced anxiety."

"For a depressed person, it isn't advisable. Relaxation programs shouldn't be used as part of depression treatment in health care," Björkelund says.


Story Source:

Materials provided by University of GothenburgNote: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Toshi A Furukawa, Aya Suganuma, Edoardo G Ostinelli, Gerhard Andersson, Christopher G Beevers, Jason Shumake, Thomas Berger, Florien Willemijn Boele, Claudia Buntrock, Per Carlbring, Isabella Choi, Helen Christensen, Andrew Mackinnon, Jennifer Dahne, Marcus J H Huibers, David D Ebert, Louise Farrer, Nicholas R Forand, Daniel R Strunk, Iony D Ezawa, Erik Forsell, Viktor Kaldo, Anna Geraedts, Simon Gilbody, Elizabeth Littlewood, Sally Brabyn, Heather D Hadjistavropoulos, Luke H Schneider, Robert Johansson, Robin Kenter, Marie Kivi, Cecilia Björkelund, Annet Kleiboer, Heleen Riper, Jan Philipp Klein, Johanna Schröder, Björn Meyer, Steffen Moritz, Lara Bücker, Ove Lintvedt, Peter Johansson, Johan Lundgren, Jeannette Milgrom, Alan W Gemmill, David C Mohr, Jesus Montero-Marin, Javier Garcia-Campayo, Stephanie Nobis, Anna-Carlotta Zarski, Kathleen O'Moore, Alishia D Williams, Jill M Newby, Sarah Perini, Rachel Phillips, Justine Schneider, Wendy Pots, Nicole E Pugh, Derek Richards, Isabelle M Rosso, Scott L Rauch, Lisa B Sheeber, Jessica Smith, Viola Spek, Victor J Pop, Burçin Ãœnlü, Kim M P van Bastelaar, Sanne van Luenen, Nadia Garnefski, Vivian Kraaij, Kristofer Vernmark, Lisanne Warmerdam, Annemieke van Straten, Pavle Zagorscak, Christine Knaevelsrud, Manuel Heinrich, Clara Miguel, Andrea Cipriani, Orestis Efthimiou, Eirini Karyotaki, Pim Cuijpers. Dismantling, optimising, and personalising internet cognitive behavioural therapy for depression: a systematic review and component network meta-analysis using individual participant dataThe Lancet Psychiatry, 2021; 8 (6): 500 DOI: 10.1016/S2215-0366(21)00077-8

Synthetic hinge could hold key to revolutionary 'smart' insulin therapy

 For people with diabetes who are insulin dependent, glycemic control is a full-time job. But what if their medication could do the work for them -- an insulin whose activity in the bloodstream responds to the blood glucose levels and adjusts accordingly? An invention from Indiana University School of Medicine Distinguished Professor Michael A. Weiss, MD, PhD, could lead to just that.

In a breakthrough study published in the peer-reviewed journal PNAS, Weiss and his team describe the use of a synthetic "switch" that can be opened or closed using a simple sugar sensor. The study was in part collaborative with Thermalin, Inc., a small biotech company that Weiss began in 2008.

Their concept exploits a natural mechanism, designated the "protective hinge," that is built into vertebrate insulins. The protective hinge is a natural structural feature that evolved more than half a billion years ago to keep the hormone stable in its closed state but foldable and functional in its open state.

"The reason a glucose-responsive insulin is important is that the biggest barrier to the effective use of insulin, especially in Type 1 diabetes, is the fear of the consequences of blood sugar going too low," said Weiss, who is also the Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Immediate consequences of severely low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) can include delirium, convulsions or loss of consciousness, and repeated episodes of severe hypoglycemia can cause cognitive decline. On the other hand, chronic high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) can lead to blindness, stroke or amputation. Staying in the desired blood glucose range is a delicate balance that insulin-dependent diabetics face every day.

But Weiss said that he envisions a future when people do not have to choose to risk their long-term health to protect themselves from the immediate dangers of severe hypoglycemia.

"The promise of this kind of 'smart' insulin is that it would transform diabetes care, so people wouldn't have to worry anymore," said Weiss. "With our invention, we envision that when the blood sugar goes low, the hinge would close. But there will be much work to do to translate our proof of principle to an FDA-approved product."

In the 100 years since the discovery of insulin, its use as a treatment for diabetes has gone through many significant changes. C. Ronald Kahn, MD, chief academic officer at the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard Medical School, said that glucose-responsive insulin could be the next.

"In the recent study from the Weiss laboratory appearing in PNAS, we see an example of the next exciting phase of insulin development, namely development of an insulin analogue which through chemical modification can sense the level of sugar present in the blood," said Kahn. "While the current analogue has been designed to sense fructose, it seems likely that this same approach can be used to develop analogues to sense glucose. Whether these can be sensitive enough to be modulated by changes within the physiological range remains to be determined, but if so, this would be an important new tool in the management of diabetes."

Other types of glucose-responsive insulins are being developed elsewhere. What makes Weiss' invention unique is its simplicity. The synthetic hinge exploits naturally occurring processes and introduces fewer external or artificial elements compared to other approaches.

While their study uses fructose as model (representative of a monosaccharide like glucose), it proves that Weiss' synthetic hinge concept works. His team is already working on glucose-responsive insulin candidates that open and close at the desired high and low glucose thresholds, which are respectively 70 to 180 milligrams per deciliter. By replacing the fructose sensor with glucose sensors, a revolutionary insulin therapy may be closer than we think.

The above referenced study is titled "Insertion of a synthetic switch into insulin provides metabolite-dependent regulation of hormone-receptor activation." Contributing authors include Yen-Shan Chen, PhD, Yanwu Yang, PhD, Balamurugan Dhayalan, PhD, Mark A. Jarosinski, PhD, and Deepak Chatterjee, PhD, from Indiana University; Nelson B. Phillips, PhD, from Case Western Reserve University; Yule Liu, PhD, Laurie Broadwater, PhD, Thomas Hattier, PhD, and M. Dodson Michael, PhD, from Thermalin, Inc; and Michael C. Lawrence from the University of Melbourne.

This work is supported in part by grants from the JDRF, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, and the National Institutes of Health (R01 DK040949 and R01 DK127761).


Story Source:

Materials provided by Indiana University School of MedicineNote: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Yen-Shan Chen, Jeremy Gleaton, Yanwu Yang, Balamurugan Dhayalan, Nelson B. Phillips, Yule Liu, Laurie Broadwater, Mark A. Jarosinski, Deepak Chatterjee, Michael C. Lawrence, Thomas Hattier, M. Dodson Michael, Michael A. Weiss. Insertion of a synthetic switch into insulin provides metabolite-dependent regulation of hormone–receptor activationProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021; 118 (30): e2103518118 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2103518118