Engineering predictability and protraction in a basal insulin analogue: the pharmacology of insulin detemir

The suboptimal nature of the absorption profiles of human insulin formulations following subcutaneous administration has prompted the development of insulin analogues better suited for therapeutic use in diabetes mellitus. A particular challenge has been to engineer long-acting agents that do not produce unduly variable responses from one injection to another. One recent approach that has met with success has been to acylate, the insulin molecule with a fatty acid, thereby enabling reversible albumin binding. The first clinically available agent of this type is insulin detemir. Pharmacological studies have established that this principle is effective in prolonging action, primarily by retarding absorption. The solubility of insulin detemir in the vial and after injection and an important buffering mechanism effected by plasma albumin binding explain a significant decrease in within-subject variability of pharmacodynamic response observed in repeat isoglycaemic clamp studies where insulin detemir was compared to other basal insulin products. Owing to the extremely high ratio of albumin-binding sites to insulin detemir molecules at therapeutic concentrations, no safety considerations have been identified pertaining to albumin binding. The insulin detemir molecule retains the molecular pharmacological properties of native human insulin, including a physiological balance between metabolic and mitogenic potencies. Thus, insulin detemir offers the promise of an improved tolerability: efficacy ratio in the clinical setting.