Say Goodbye to Needles
Needles. No one likes them. When I think of needles, I think of the pain I want to avoid
at all costs. However, not everyone has the option to do this. 37.3 million people in the United
States have diabetes, and these people don’t have the choice to say no to a needle. People with
diabetes don’t make enough insulin or can’t use it as well as they should so they have high blood
sugar. High blood sugar then can lead to serious health problems like heart disease, vision loss,
and kidney disease. To solve the insulin issue, people have to resort to insulin injections. It’s
already scary to be told that you have diabetes, so learning that you have to inject insulin on a
regular basis too makes the experience much more unpleasant.
Researchers at UC Riverside (UCR) have possibly found a new way for diabetes and
other patients to manage their conditions without needles and injections. Some drugs are unable
to be administered by mouth because they dissolve in water before reaching the intestines, but
researchers at UCR have created a chemical tag that can be added to the drugs to allow them to
enter the blood circulation through the intestines. The tag, which is made up of a small neutrally
charged peptide, was fed to mice, and the researchers found that the peptide accumulated in the
intestines before going into the bloodstream. The team of researchers now wants to see whether
or not the tag can accomplish the same results when attached to a selection of drugs.
For some diseases, there is no other way to receive medication besides needles if it can’t
be taken orally. Needles can be scary and painful to navigate, especially for younger ages, so it’s
assuring that there can potentially be another quick and painless option. This could also make
diagnoses, like diabetes, a little less intimidating. I would much rather prefer a pill over an
injection.
Posted by Tiffany Pham (9)
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221110101817.htm
Hi Tiffany! This is a very interesting topic! I did not know there was another way being tested to deliver medication to diabetic patients. This could really change medicine in different ways. I wonder if this is being tested for vaccinations and other shots in general as well?
ReplyDeleteHi Sneha! I think that the goal for these researchers is to see if this chemical tag can work for all sorts of medications, but there hasn't be any updates yet because this paper was only published a couple of weeks ago. Current chemical tags are positively charged and only interacts with negatively charged membrane components like lipids and HSPGs, which is only a small fraction of mechanisms that allow drugs to enter blood circulation through the intestines. This new chemical tag is uncharged and hydrophilic so makes room to transport different drugs in animal cells.
Delete- Tiffany
Hi Tiffany, I was unaware of this research and I think it could be groundbreaking for chronic diseases like diabetes. Taking a pill would be much more painless and easy of a process. Do you know the progression of this research and what it looks like? Do you think this is a realistic thing that can be acheived?
ReplyDeleteHi Chloe! This research paper was published on October 27, 2022 so there hasn't been much progression yet for this particular chemical tag, but I do think that this could be achieved. I found that there are other delivery tags that have a good amount of research done with many therapeutic applications, and what makes this one different is that its uncharged. Other chemical tags so far have been positively charged and only work with negatively charged membrane components so this is just one step closer to finding a possible universal tag to attach to medications.
Delete- Tiffany
Hi Tiffany! This was interesting to read because needles are something that cause fear in a lot of people and it is good to see that more research is being done on ways to avoid this and find easier ways to give medication. Do you think that eventually needles will be eliminated and medications will be able to given by a different route, such as orally, nasally, transdermally, etc. or do you think we will always deal with needles?
ReplyDeleteHi Caitlin, I do think that there's a chance that needles could possibly one day be eliminated. Maybe not in the near future, but I feel like it could happen because there is always new research being done to understand drugs, how drugs affect cells, and the mechanisms inside of cells, or new ways to improve science. Back then, no one would have thought we would be able to edit genes, but look where we are today, especially with CRISPR. So, I don't think we should think that something we use regularly today will always be used.
Delete- Tiffany
- Tiffany
Getting rid of needles would be such an advancement in modern medicine. I’m not a big fan of needles either, so getting rid of that would be great news. If they are able to make injections pills, do you think they’d be able to make vaccinations pills somehow? Would they be able to find other ways to vaccinate without injections?
ReplyDeleteHi Tiffany! this is really cool, because i too do not like needles. I am fortunate to not have to use needles often as others may if they are dependent on insulin injections. Could this tag be applied to other things like vaccines or fast acting drugs? (Samantha Bunner)
ReplyDelete