(Press-News.org) Insulin degludec (Tresiba), a new ultra-long-acting insulin, has a similar or reduced risk of recurrent hypoglycemia-- low blood sugar-- compared with the commercially available insulin glargine, a new meta-analysis study finds. Results of the combined analysis, of five completed clinical trials, will be presented Tuesday at The Endocrine Society's 95th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
The studies included nearly 3,400 adults with type 2 diabetes who had a daily injection of either insulin degludec or glargine combined with either a mealtime insulin or oral diabetic medications.
"Compared with insulin glargine, insulin degludec may offer considerable benefits by reducing the major side effect of insulin therapy, hypoglycemia," said the study's principal investigator, Alan Garber, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, biochemistry and molecular biology, and molecular and cellular biology at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston.
Insulin degludec is not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration but is commercially available in some other countries. Because it has a longer duration of action than insulin glargine, Garber said it was important to determine whether this affects the likelihood of patients having recurrent episodes of hypoglycemia. The study authors defined recurrent hypoglycemia as a confirmed plasma glucose, or low blood sugar, level less than 56 milligrams per deciliter (or a level so severe that the patient required assistance) within 24 hours of another such episode.
Of the patients in the five studies, 2,262 took insulin degludec and 1,110 used insulin glargine, the authors reported. Four trials compared these two basal, or long-acting, insulins in combination with oral diabetic medications (insulin-oral therapy). One study, analyzed separately from the others, compared the insulins combined with a bolus, or fast-acting mealtime, insulin, called aspart (insulin-only therapy).
Denmark-headquartered Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of insulin degludec, funded the meta-analysis and provided statistical analysis.
Results showed that 38 percent of patients taking insulin degludec and 43 percent of patients using insulin glargine experienced recurrent hypoglycemia in the insulin-only trial, compared with 6.1 and 6.6 percent with degludec and glargine, respectively, in the insulin-oral therapy trials. For all five trials, there was no significant difference in the rates of recurrent hypoglycemia, according to the abstract. For the insulin-only trial, there was reportedly a 27 percent lower rate of recurrent hypoglycemia for patients taking insulin degludec versus insulin glargine.
"This study shows that insulin degludec is an appropriate therapy for use in different treatment regimens for patients with type 2 diabetes," Garber said.
Nearly one-third of patients with type 2 diabetes use insulin therapy, he stated. Insulin-induced hypoglycemia is one of the most common reasons for emergency room visits by older adults, Garber said, citing a November 2011 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
"Decreasing the risk of hypoglycemia in diabetic patients is a benefit to both the patient and the insurer," he said.
###
Insulin degludec lowers risk of recurrent low blood sugar or has similar risk to insulin glargine
2013-06-18
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Stone Age technological and cultural innovation accelerated by climate
2013-06-18
Archaeological and genetic evidence suggests that modern humans (the modern form of Homo sapiens, our species) originated in Africa during the Stone Age, between 30,000 and 280,000 years ago. The latest archaeological excavations in southern Africa have shown that technological innovation, linked to the emergence of culture and modern behaviour, took place abruptly: the beginnings of symbolic expression, the making of tools from stone and bone, jewellery or the first agricultural settlements.
An international team of researchers has linked these pulses of innovation to ...
Scientists find potential genetic drivers behind male heart disease risk
2013-06-18
University of Leicester scientists have discovered a potential genetic contributor to the increased risk of heart disease among men.
A team of researchers including clinicians and scientists have made an important step forward in search of the mechanisms underlying increased risk of coronary artery disease in men who carry a particular type of the Y chromosome (haplogroup I).
The team, from the University's Department of Cardiovascular Sciences and Department of Health Sciences, have followed up their recent award-winning study showing that men with haplogroup I of ...
Seismic gap outside of Istanbul
2013-06-18
Earthquake researchers have now identified a 30 kilometers long and ten kilometers deep area along the North Anatolian fault zone just south of Istanbul that could be the starting point for a strong earthquake. The group of seismologists including Professor Marco Bohnhoff of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences reported in the current online issue of the scientific journal Nature (Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2999) that this potential earthquake source is only 15 to 20 kilometers from the historic city center of Istanbul.
The Istanbul-Marmara region ...
The secret of DNA methylation
2013-06-18
Methylation refers to a chemical modification of DNA and this modification can occur in millions of positions in the DNA sequence. Until now, scientists believed that this epigenetic phenomenon actively reduced the expression of certain genes. Today, a team of researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, led by Emmanouil Dermitzakis, Louis-Jeantet Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, reveals that this is not always the case and that DNA methylation may play both a passive and active role in gene regulation. The mechanistic relationships between DNA sequence ...
Pioneering breakthrough of chemical nanoengineering to design drugs controlled by light
2013-06-18
The scientific cooperation between chemists, biotechnologists and physicists from various Catalan institutes, headed by Pau Gorostiza, from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), and Ernest Giralt, from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), has led to a breakthrough that will favor the development of light-regulated therapeutic molecules. The breakthrough published online today in the German journal of reference in chemistry Angewandte Chemie has received recognition as a "Very Important Paper", a distinction that only 5% of the articles ...
Feline behavior experts release guidelines to improve the welfare of cats
2013-06-18
LA, London (18 June 2013). A team of internationally recognized feline experts including veterinarians and feline scientists co-chaired by Dr Sarah Ellis from the University of Lincoln, U.K. and Dr Ilona Rodan, Director of Cat Care Clinic, Wisconsin, U.S.A. were invited by the International Society of Feline Medicine (ISFM) and the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) to compile guidelines for veterinarians, owners and those working with cats on how to meet the environmental needs of the domestic cat. The new guidelines appear in the Journal of Feline Medicine ...
Rice blast research reveals details on how a fungus invades plants
2013-06-18
Like a stealthy enemy, blast disease invades rice crops around the world, killing plants and cutting production of one of the most important global food sources. Now a study by an international team of researchers has shed light on how the rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae, invades plant tissue. The finding is a step towards learning how to control the disease, which by some estimates destroys enough rice to feed 60 million people annually.
The team, from the Halpin Laboratory at the University of Exeter, in collaboration with Kansas State University and the Iwate ...
It's the way you tell em': Study discovers how the brain controls accents and impersonations
2013-06-18
A study, led by Royal Holloway University researcher Carolyn McGettigan, has identified the brain regions and interactions involved in impersonations and accents.
Using an fMRI scanner, the team asked participants, all non-professional impressionists, to repeatedly recite the opening lines of a familiar nursery rhyme either with their normal voice, by impersonating individuals, or by impersonating regional and foreign accents of English.
They found that when a voice is deliberately changed, it brings the left anterior insula and inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) of the ...
Study shows how the Nanog protein promotes growth of head and neck cancer
2013-06-18
COLUMBUS, Ohio-– A study led by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-– Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC–James) has identified a biochemical pathway in cancer stem cells that is essential for promoting head and neck cancer.
The study shows that a protein called Nanog, which is normally active in embryonic stem cells, promotes the growth of cancer stem cells in head and neck cancer. The findings provide information essential for designing novel targeted drugs that might improve the treatment ...
Why is it easier to lose 2-4 pounds rather than 3 pounds?
2013-06-18
Consumers are more likely to pursue goals when they are ambitious yet flexible, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
"Whether a goal is a high-low range goal (lose 2 to 4 pounds this week) or a single number goal (lose 3 pounds this week) has a systematic effect on goal reengagement. High-low range goals influence consumer goal reengagement through feelings of accomplishment, which itself is driven by the attainability and challenge of the goal," write authors Maura L. Scott (Florida State University) and Stephen M. Nowlis (Washington University ...