History of Insulin Discovery

Abstract

Insulin therapy is one of the most important methods of treating diabetes, and it is indispensable for type 1 diabetes. Thanks to insulin, diabetes has ceased to be a deadly disease, leading to death in a matter of months. For a number of years, until the discovery of insulin, diabetes was an almost incurable disease. Adherence to a strict diet with a restriction of carbohydrates was considered the only method of treatment, however, this diet led to the exhaustion of already weakened patients, and helped to prolong life for only a few years. Scientists from different countries unsuccessfully tried to solve this problem by conducting numerous experiments on animals, and only at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries the hope of success appeared. In 1889, the famous scientist Oskar Minkowski (1858-1931) found that diabetes would certainly develop as a result of the removal of the dog’s pancreas. Thus, it became clear that the pancreas produces not only digestive enzymes, but also some other specific substance that prevents the development of diabetes. It took years to isolate this substance, first called ayletin, and subsequently insulin, and finally, in 1922, a long-awaited breakthrough happened in this area. In 1923, the Nobel Prize in the nomination "Medicine and Physiology" was awarded to two scientists - Frederick Banting and John Macleod, and humanity received the long-awaited cure from diabetes thanks to their discovery.