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SALT LAKE CITY — University of Utah Health researchers have been investigating the function of cone snail insulin, which they believe can be used as a faster-acting form of insulin to treat diabetes.
Marine cone snails may seem innocuous, but several prey-capturing strategies have made them some of nature’s most effective predators. In 2015 researchers found that the fish-hunting cone snail releases insulin into surrounding water to help capture its prey, according to eLife. The insulin plunges the victim into hypoglycemic shock, lowering its blood sugar so much that they can’t move. The snail then emerges from its shell and swallows the victim whole.
“We are constantly looking for more therapies,” Helena Safavi-Hemami, Ph.D., assistant professor of biochemistry at U of U Health and senior author on the paper, told KSL.com. “About five years ago, we stumbled across the insulin in venom."
From there, they decided to start looking into what implications the venom might have for diabetes treatment.
“These snails have developed a strategy to hit and subdue their prey with up to 200 different compounds, one of which is insulin,” Safavi-Hemami said in a recent press release. “Every now and then, we learn something unique from nature and millions of years of evolution.”
Insulin is a hormone created by the pancreas, which is a gland located in the abdomen behind the stomach. After eating, the digestive system processes carbohydrates and transforms them into glucose which is then absorbed into the bloodstream through the lining of the small intestine, according to Healthline. Once glucose is in the bloodstream, cells in the body are incited by insulin to absorb the sugar and process it as energy.
It also helps to keep blood glucose levels in balance. In Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas produces little or no insulin. Without insulin letting glucose into cells, sugar builds up in the bloodstream causing life-threatening complications, according to Mayo Clinic.
People with Type 1 diabetes have to inject themselves with insulin daily in order to maintain their blood sugar at healthy levels, according to Science Daily. Even after decades of research, manufactured insulin can take up to 90 minutes to act.
Safavi-Hemami and her team of researchers looked into the function of seven insulin sequences in the venom of three different types of cone snails. Each species produces slightly different hormones but they all are very fast-acting, according to the press release.
“Evolution may be the driving force to increase the molecular diversity of the toxin molecules that the cone snail species uses for hunting prey,” said Danny Hung-Chieh Chou, Ph.D., co-author on the paper and assistant professor of biochemistry.
Molecular dynamics were able to reveal that the insulin of cone snails has unique modes of action that behave differently from any other types of insulin seen in nature, according to the study. When tested in zebrafish and mice, the study revealed that venom insulin significantly lowered blood glucose levels in their model, suggesting that cone snails have evolved a way to activate the vertebrate insulin receptor extremely quickly.
Unlike human insulin, the cone snail insulin doesn’t cluster, which allows it to act far more quickly, although the sequences were between 10 and 20 times less potent, according to the press release.
The next step will be to fully understand how snail insulins are able to activate the human receptor without forming delaying clusters, according to eLife. The study has provided an insight into designing new drugs to treat diabetes more effectively.
“We have one compound that we have designed which we are hoping can go through clinical testing,” Safavi-Hemami said. Simultaneously, they are also working on developing other compounds from the venom that could be used in treating Type 1 diabetes.
“We are beginning to uncover the secrets of cone snails,” said Safavi-Hemami. “We hope to use what we learn to find new approaches to treat diabetes.”
