Researchers have been working on several forms of insulin medications that a patient can inhale. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) described the first inhaled insulin, approved in 2006, as the biggest advance in insulin therapy since discovery of the hormone in the 1920s.

Other insulin research includes work on potential treatments such as:

• Development of an insulin patch placed on the skin to provide a continuous dose
  
  
• Insulin pills, drops and other forms of orally administered insulin that can take effect instead of being digested
  
  
• Development of drugs to delay the decline of insulin production in type 1 diabetes
  
  
• Dietary supplements made of resistant starch that may improve the body’s response to insulin and help avoid insulin resistance

Other developments in insulin research include the recent discoveries that:

• Insulin, normally made in the pancreas, can also be manufactured by abnormal cells in other parts of the body. Malfunctioning bone marrow cells that create insulin have recently been linked to the nerve disease diabetic neuropathy.
  
  
• Creation of beta cells, the insulin-making cells of the pancreas, may still occur even in people with long-standing type 1 diabetes. Such findings could lead to a treatment for type 1 diabetes.
  
  
• Insulin is needed for the formation of blood vessels. Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center say the discovery could improve treatment of diabetic heart conditions.
  
  
• Low-dose intravenous insulin supplied shortly after a heart attack may curb inflammation and cardiac damage.
  
  
• People with migraine headaches appear to have reduced sensitivity to insulin. The discovery may account for the previously noted link between migraines and vascular diseases and lead to treatments that ease migraines by improving sensitivity to insulin.
  
  
• Lack of insulin in the brains of lab rodents appears to cause an Alzheimer’s-like dementia. Another study found that nasally delivered insulin seemed to improve memory in people with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease. Some researchers are exploring whether Alzheimer’s disease might be a form of diabetes involving insulin resistance in the brain. In addition, recent research has found that insulin receptors in brain, as in other body tissues, play an important role in controlling glucose (blood sugar).