Reader's Corner
| Milestones in the treatment of diabetes with insulin |
| The Discovery And Development Of Insulin |
| While the condition – diabetes was know to mankind for ages, it was not until 1922 that persons suffering from diabetes were treated with a specific anti-diabetic drug. |
| 1889: Von Merring and Minkowski are known to have conducted experiments in blood sugar control. |
1921: Banting, Best and Mcleoid officially announce that injecting pancreatic extracts indeed help in controlling the symptoms of diabetes. |
1922: Leonard Thompson, an eight-year old boy with diabetes becomes the first human being to receive insulin at Toronto General Hospital. |
| 1923: Dr Banting and Mcleoid with Charles Best get the coveted Nobel Prize. |
| 1926 – 1934: Prof. J.J. Abel at John Hopkins University develops crystalline insulin and by 1934 the molecular weight of insulin is also determined. |
| 1946: Isophane insulin (or what is popularly known as NPH (Neutral Protamine Hagedorn) insulin is introduced. Even in recent times, NPH insulin is the most widely used intermediate-acting insulin. |
1955: Once again a Nobel Prize – Dr Fredric Sangar. He was the first to define the structure and amino acid sequence of insulin including species related molecular differences. |
| 1970: The pioneering work of a scientist working at Novo led to the introduction of chromatographically purified insulin. |
1978: Yet another Nobel Prize. Roslynn Yallow for the development of radio immunoassay methodology. This discovery resulted in the entire field of endocrinology moving ahead rapidly. |
| 1981: The first commercial availability of Human insulin was through a biosynthetic method developed at Novo. |
| 1982: The first genetically engineered human insulin was introduced by Eli-Lilly. |
1984: Further research at Novo leads to the production of a single chain insulin precursor. This new method of a single precursor is now widely used to produce genetically engineered insulin irrespective of the host cell used. |
For the past many years, attempts are being made to alter the insulin delivery mechanisms. Nasal, Oral. Research is concentrating on minimally invasive insulin- delivery techniques. Certainly this will improve compliance and so, more and more diabetics will enjoy a better quality of life and lesser long term complications of diabetes. |
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