Well, is she? Or am I being closed-minded? The bacteria would need to be on a major vein and have genes to monitor glucose levels, right? Can all the required genes fit on an E. coli genome?
>>7639727
>Bacteria
>Cell
I believe you are the victim of trolling OP, lay off the drugs
>>7639727
>injecting insulin producing bacteria into the body with no way to regulate the insulin output
10/10 idea
what could possibly go wrong
brb gonna patent it before someone else does
I can see the problems but its nowhere near 'are you high' tier.
>>7639727
>am I being closed-minded?
This mostly.
The reason is that
1:oral insulin is badly absorbed, and
2:having it part of the microbiome means it's hard to regulate, and as insulin overdose can be lethal in itself or cause lethal accidents it's very much not wanted.
> what's to stop us from?
That's pretty much a safe sigh someone is talking out of their hat. But basically What >>7639727 was saying. The bacteria would have no way of knowing what's the right amount to produce.
Now you could hypothetical engineer bacteria able to detect the blood sugar levels and produce the right amount but that's decades ahead of today's tech.
>>7639727
This kind of shit happens naturally, it's a pretty solid theory on how many of our cellular functions evolved (a bacteria/virus/other's genes joined ours over time, especially from commensal relationships)
>>7639727
>is she high?
>am I just being closed minded?
>is she correct?
None of those things are mutually exclusive, meaning they could all be true at the same time.
The main barrier that I am imagining is, will the insulin be absorbed quickly enough to respond to blood sugar spikes? E. Coli generally float around in the large intestinal mucosa. Can insulin be absorbed through the gut wall efficiently?
>>7642012
>The main barrier that I am imagining is, will the insulin be absorbed quickly enough to respond to blood sugar spikes
>absorption
>main barrier
>not the fact that an uncontrollable production of insulin will kill you dead
>>7639727
Not necessarily you could manipulate the growth kinetics if you had a product inhibition factor it could be designed so that it would be self regulating at the desired concentration assuming the equilibrium doesn't change too drastically. It would take a lot of talented genetic engineering to get it right though.
t. Biochemical Engineer.
>>7642048
But is it really feasible to think that we can reliably control growth kinetics of the gut? The microbiome is very sensitive. One bad burrito, or ingestion of antibiotics, can throw the whole system out of wack.
>>7642059
I think even a working gene manipulation therapy is more likely, but as complex as it is, it's definitely possible to control the product and cell to limiting concentrations. You would probably wipe out the bacteria too often for it be effective though.
