Talk:Insulin analog

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The following user(s) are actively contributing to this article and may be able to help with questions about verification and sources: Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) This in no way implies article ownership; all editors are encouraged to contribute.

[edit] Vegetable insulins

It is the most important not-commertial variant, and it is scienticlly tested, see authoritative references on the article.

I am not sure the compounds you are discussing are true "insulin analogues". They would fall, more likely, in the category of Anti-diabetic drug.

Can we decide without a molecular structure?

The clue is that it is only effective for type II diabetes, as are the sulfonylureas. They potentiate the effect of insulin, but do not replace insulin. I would think that if plants were a source of the insulin proteins they would have been exploited as a source of insulin, as were the plant based steroids that became the source of birth control pills at Syntex.

Yes, good clues... The usual and "effective treatment" is with concentrated extract, commercialized in a 0.5kg (~2 US dollar cheap) packed rocks, named "Pedra hume de kaá". The infusion is for "more homeopatic" treatment. A good reference (start point) may be rain-tree.com/Myrcia. More recent papers are at pharm.or.jp (PDF) and ncbi.nlm.nih.gov (abstract). They cite flavanone glucosides (myrciacitrins) and acetophenone glucosides (myrciaphenones), and report inhibitory activities on aldose reductase and alphaglucosidase. -- Krauss 16 October 2006

"Vegetable Insulin" is an herbal extract - it is not an analog of insulin - while it "may" help in reducing glucose levels, I can find no reliable claim its structure is similiar. For this reason and based on the previous comments it should be removed. If someone can find a "vegetable insulin" that has a structure remotely like insulin then it may qualify - this does not appear to be the case now. Hichris 16:08, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes, thank you, it is correct/consistent (except your "may" - the use of herbal extracts is not folklore!). Sorry updated here, if no evidence, the correct place (as you pointed - thanks) is Anti-diabetic drug. -- Krauss 17 October 2006

Sounds fine to me to include it with anti-diabetes drugs - (fyi: looking at the literature there are only a few studies done with this extract, and they are conflicting - hence the "may".) Hichris 19:31, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Lantus availablility

This link (http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/1cdef6.htm) contradicts Lantus's availability as occuring in 2003. Also it might be good to specify that this is US availability -- other countries may adopt earlier or later. 192.75.95.127 22:45, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] NPH?

Is NPH considered an "insulin analog" the way the drugs listed on this page are? I get the impression that the insulin molecule itself isn't modified, it's just mixed with protamine. Guy Harris 23:39, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

• Thats correct. It just has the best performing formulation, so is the standard all other formulations and analogs are compared to. --Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) 00:45, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

• • I dispute some of this, in particular the word "best". A routine effect of "human" NPH on many diabetics is a massive peak in action around 5 hours after injection, leading to regular hypoglycaemia. Furthermore, these hypoglycaemiae are notorious amongst hypoglycaemiae for being devoid of symptoms. I don't know any academic sources for this, but a meticulous search through the archives of the newsgroup misc.health.diabetes will confirm it. Although "human" NPH supposedly lasts ~24 hours, for some users the residual activity after the first 7 or 8 hours can be vestigial indeed. Zinc insulin (Semilente, Lente and Ultralente) don't suffer these problems. "Human" NPH is thus a very useful drug for comparison with new analogs, since it is easy to show that the analogs perform better. AMackenzie (talk) 19:01, 20 April 2008 (UTC)