Inhaled insulin for diabetics

Insulin that can be taken by an inhaler is under development. It promises to free diabetics from multiple daily injections, but there has been concern that it may be difficult to control the dose accurately enough so that neither too much nor too little is given. Recent research shows that reliable dosing is no more a problem.Insulin delivered by the Aerodose insulin inhaler provides a pharmacologically predictable dose of insulin similar to that achieved with subcutaneous insulin in patients with type 2 diabetes. The researchers from the VA San Diego Healthcare System in California compared the response to various doses of insulin delivered by injections and by Aerodose inhaler in 24 adult type 2 diabetics on 4 separate days.Inhaled insulin reached peak concentrations - and its peak effect - significantly faster than subcutaneous insulin. The researchers found that increasing doses of inhaled insulin resulted in a corresponding increase in serum insulin concentrations (and decrease in blood glucose) that was similar in proportion to that obtained for increasing doses of injected insulin.

While inhaled insulin was well tolerated, the researchers noted a small but statistically significant drop in lung function with medium and high dose of inhaled insulin. However, due to the relatively small number of subjects in the study, the clinical significance of these lung changes will have to await the results of long-term inhaled insulin safety studies currently in progress.