胶囊里面藏针头：糖尿病不用每天打针啦

In 1922, a 14-year-old boy in Toronto, Canada, received the first injection of insulin to treat life-threatening diabetes.

1922年，一名加拿大多伦多的14岁男孩首次接受了胰岛素的注射来治疗威胁其生命的糖尿病。

The same year, researchers began to test oral insulin formulations, hoping to relieve people with diabetes of daily shots.

同年，研究员们开始测试口服胰岛素配方，希望能将糖尿病患者们从每日的注射中解救出来。

That effort failed, as have dozens of similar attempts.

这一努力失败了，很多类似的尝试也同样如此。

But realistic hope for oral insulin may finally be here.

但口服胰岛素实现的希望也许就在眼前了。

Researchers report in this issue of Science that they've engineered a capsule that, once ingested, pokes a tiny hole in the lining of the stomach to deliver insulin or other so-called biologic medicines that can't be taken by mouth.

研究员们在最新一期《科学》杂志上报告称，他们研发了一种胶囊，一旦消化后，会在胃里面扎一个微孔用来输送胰岛素和其他不能用口服用的生物药剂。

Other research groups and companies have also made recent progress in delivering once-injected medicines orally, raising hopes that for many patients, painful injections may become a thing of the past.

其他的研究团队和公司也在这种一次性注射的口服药上取得了进展，为了很多患者带来福音，注射也许成为了过去时。

"This field is really at an exciting stage," says Samir Mitragotri, a biomedical engineer at Harvard University.

“这个领域正处于非常令人振奋的阶段，”塞米尔.米特莱格瑞说，他是哈佛医学院的生物医学工程师。

"I think it's going to completely transform how patients take drugs."

“我认为这将会彻底改变患者用药的方式。”

Unlike traditional pharmaceuticals, which are small molecules that the digestive tract easily absorbs, biologics are typically proteins: large, unwieldy molecules produced by microbes or other living cells.

跟传统药物不同，传统药物是小分子可以被消化系统轻易吸收，生物制剂一般都是蛋白质：分子量大，笨重，是由微生物或其他活细胞生产的。

Biologics, which include seven of the 10 top selling drugs by sales in the United States, are more likely to hit a target molecule in the body without side effects because of their large size.

生物制剂，包含了目前美国卖得最好的十种药品中的七种之多，因为其分子量大，更容易在体内结合靶向目标而不会引起副作用。

But they're also more liable to degrade in the stomach or be blocked from entering the bloodstream by thick layers of mucus and tightly packed epithelial cells that line the stomach and gut.

但它们也更容易在胃内被降解，或者因为层层粘液以及胃和胆周围的内皮细胞阻碍而无法进入血液。

Traverso, with Robert Langer, a drug delivery expert at MIT, and their colleagues turned instead to engineering.

特莱福索和麻省理工大学的药物输送专家罗伯特.兰吉尔及其团队一起，开始转向工程学方法。

They developed a hollow pill with one flattened end.

他们研发出了一种中空的胶囊有一端是扁平的。

The shape, along with the capsule's center of mass near the flat end, ensures that the pill rights itself in the stomach, with its flat surface facing the stomach lining.

这种形状，以及该胶囊位于扁平端的重心确保了它会在胃部处于正确的位置，扁平面会面向胃系膜。

Just inside the pill's flat end, which is made of sugar, sits a tiny tensed spring topped with a needle made from solid insulin.

就在由糖类制成的扁平端这里，有一个小小的压紧的弹簧里面装有固体胰岛素制成的针头。

In the moist stomach, the sugar begins to dissolve, eventually allowing the spring to poke the insulin needle into the outer stomach layer, where it dissolves and enters the bloodstream.

在湿润的胃内，糖类开始溶解，最后使得弹簧可以把胰岛素针注射入胃部外层，从那里它会融化并进入血液。

In rats and pigs, the pill could deliver essentially the same insulin levels into the blood as a subcutaneous injection.

在大鼠和猪的动物试验中，这种胶囊跟皮下注射相比输送的胰岛素水平是相当的。

"It's a very smart design," says Edith Mathiowitz, a biomedical engineer at Brown University.

“这是很聪明的设计，”艾迪斯.麦瑟维茨说，她是布朗大学的 一名生物医学工程师。

However, she adds, the team needs to ensure that creating even tiny perforations in the stomach doesn't pose long-term health problems for patients, and that undesirable proteins or bacteria can't wiggle their way in alongside the insulin.

然而，她补充道，该团队必须要确保这种胃部的微创不会给患者带来长期性的健康问题，并保证那些有害的蛋白或细菌不能跟胰岛素一起混进去。

问题

文中没有直接提到过以下哪种胰岛素口服药面临的困难？

A.分子量大  B.胃部环境  C.成本   D.难以入血

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