At a Tokyo cafe, Michio Imai greets a customer, but not in person. He's hundreds of kilometres away, operating a robot waiter as part of an experiment in inclusive employment.
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Could Peptide-Insulin Mixture Unlock the Prospect of Oral Diabetes Therapy?
April 28, 2021
The results of research by a team of scientists at Kumamoto University in Japan could feasibly provide the foundation for developing orally administered forms of insulin that would free diabetes patients from daily injections. The team’s studies first found that L-DNP peptide, a small intestine-permeable cyclic peptide originally used as an insulin additive to improve absorption into the small intestine, lowers blood glucose levels in mice. They then demonstrated that insulin can be administered orally by simply adding the D-form of the DNP peptide (D-DNP) to injectable insulin used in clinical practice. The results could represent the foundation for developing a more patient-friendly form of insulin therapy.