Can music help diabetics produce insulin? Science Says Yes
Researchers are developing a gene switch that triggers insulin release in designer cells by playing certain music
Scientists have found a method of stimulating the body’s cells to release insulin within minutes using music, and it works especially well with “We Will Rock You” by Queen.
Diabetes is a condition in which the body produces little or no insulin. Thus diabetics are dependent on an external supply of this hormone through injection or pump.
Researchers led by Martin Fussenegger from the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at ETH Zurich in Basel want to make life easier for these people and are looking for a solution to produce and administer insulin directly into the body. Their work is published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
One such solution that scientists are pursuing is encapsulating insulin-producing designer cells in capsules that can be implanted into the body. To be able to control from the outside when and how much insulin the cells release into the blood, researchers have in recent years studied and applied different triggers: light, temperature, and electric fields.
Fussenegger and his colleagues have now developed another, innovative stimulation method: They use music to trigger cells to release insulin within minutes. This worked particularly well with the global hit “We Will Rock You” by the British rock band, Queen.
Equipping cells to receive sound waves
To make insulin-producing cells more receptive to sound waves, the researchers used a protein from the bacterium E. coli. Such proteins respond to mechanical stimuli and are common in animals and bacteria. The protein is located in the membrane of the bacterium and regulates the flow of calcium ions into the interior of the cell.
Researchers have incorporated the blueprint of this bacterial ion channel into human insulin-producing cells. From this, these cells themselves make ion channels and incorporate them into their membrane.
As scientists have been able to show, channels in these cells open in response to sound, allowing positively charged calcium ions to flow into the cell. This causes a charge reversal across the cell membrane, as a result of which tiny insulin-filled vesicles inside the cell bind to the cell membrane and release insulin.
Fast Bass Increases Insulin Secretion
In cell cultures, the researchers first determined which frequencies and volume levels most strongly activated the ion channels. They found that a volume level of around 60 decibels (dB) and bass frequencies of 50 hertz were most effective at triggering ion channels. To trigger maximum insulin release, the sound or music has to continue for at least three seconds and pause for a maximum of five seconds. If the intervals were too far apart, significantly less insulin was released.
Finally, the researchers looked at which music genres produced the strongest insulin response at a volume of 85 dB. The thumping bass rock music “We Will Rock You” by Queen topped the charts, followed by the soundtrack to the action film “The Avengers”. The insulin response to classical music and guitar music was comparatively weak.
“We Will Rock You” triggered an insulin response of about 70% within five minutes, and all of this within 15 minutes. Fussenegger says this is comparable to the natural glucose-stimulated insulin response of healthy individuals.
The sound source should be directly above the implant
To test the whole system, the researchers implanted insulin-producing cells into mice and placed the animals so that their stomachs were directly over the loudspeaker. This was the only way the researchers could observe the insulin response. However, if the animals were able to move around freely to the “mouse disco,” the music failed to trigger insulin release.
“Our designer cells release insulin only when a sound source with the correct pitch is played directly on the skin over the implant,” explains Fussenegger. The release of the hormone was not triggered by ambient noise such as aircraft noises, lawnmowers, fire brigade sirens, or conversations.
No triggering through ambient noise
As far as he can tell from tests in cell culture and on mice, Fussenegger sees little risk that cells transplanted into humans will release insulin continuously and at the slightest whim.
Another safety buffer is that insulin depots require four hours to refill completely after being depleted. So even if the cells were exposed to sound at hourly intervals, they would not be able to release a full load of insulin each time, which could lead to life-threatening hypoglycemia.
“However, it can meet the normal needs of a diabetic who eats three meals a day,” says Fussenegger. He explains that insulin remains in the vesicles for a long time, even if a person does not eat anything for more than four hours. “There is no deficiency or unintentional discharge.”
But medical application is still a long way off. The researchers have provided only a proof of concept, showing that genetic networks can be controlled by mechanical stimuli such as sound waves.
Whether this theory will ever be put to practical use depends on whether a pharmaceutical company is interested in doing so. Ultimately, it can be widely applied: the system works not only with insulin but with any protein that is suitable for therapeutic use.
