Pramlintide: Curbs After-Meal Highs

How It Works

For many decades, experts thought insulin was the only hormone secreted from the beta cells involved in blood glucose control. Then researchers in the 1980s discovered a companion hormone known as amylin. This hormone is normally released along with insulin in response to a meal.

Amylin helps to regulate blood glucose by:

• suppressing the liver's glucagon secretion (which stimulates glucose production)
• slowing stomach emptying and thereby delaying the rise of blood glucose after eating
• promoting a feeling of fullness to control appetite

This injectable drug is designed for people with type 1 or type 2 who take insulin. Just as your body produces little or no insulin when you have diabetes, it also produces less amylin. So scientists developed pramlintide, an amylinlike drug, to help people who can't achieve adequate blood glucose control with mealtime insulin alone.