Venomous Sea Snail Could Hold Key To Better Insulin For Diabetics

Natural insulin produced by Cone snails, Conus geographus, is being studied in the hope that it could transform the way diabetes is treated. A new study published in the journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, has detailed research into the potential application of the specialist insulin, which works much faster than the kind diabetics are currently treated with.

Cone snails live in warm tropical water, with larger species predators that fire of plumes of venom that contain an especially fact-acting insulin. It has to have an immediate impact to paralyse fish caught in the plumes before they swim too far away for the cone snails, which can grow up to 6-inches long, to take advantage.

Fish are paralysed when they come into contact with the insulin-packed venom because their blood sugar level drops off a cliff. While they are immobilised, the cone snail harpoons them with a launchable tooth that then drags the fish into the cone snail’s shell, where it is ingested whole.

Human insulin is produced in the pancreas and helps our bodies convert glucose into energy. Those with type 1 diabetes cannot produce it, meaning their bodies do not regulate blood sugar level. Synthetic insulin injections are instead administered to keep the blood sugar level of diabetics under control.

But a problem with the kind of insulin currently used, a synthetic substance modelled on human insulin, is that it can take up to an hour to break up and start working. This is because it contains a component that makes it clump to be stored in the pancreas. Clumped insulin needs to first break up before it is released into the body, slowing down the impact time.

Cone snail insulin doesn’t contain the clumping component, which would make it ineffective in its venomous plumes. Mike Lawrence, a professor of structural biology at the University of Melbourne, believes a faster-acting synthetic version of the predator snail insulin could transform lives:

“It has always been a problem with insulin injections that the body doesn’t respond immediately.”

Helena Safavi, adjunct professor of biochemistry at the University of Utah, who worked on the research project explains:

“We had the idea of making human insulin more snail-like.”

Inspired by the Cone snail insulin, the researchers created a human insulin molecule that didn’t include the clumping component. That has been tried in the past and resulted in insulin that didn’t work. However, this time the researchers added four components from the Cone snail insulin. Problem solved – the human insulin worked and didn’t clump, meaning it had an almost immediate effect when tested on laboratory rates. Human trials could start within three years.