ZICHRON YA'AKOV, Israel - A team of Weizmann Institute scientists has discovered a family of amino acid analogues that, when forming a complex with vanadium, are three to four times more effective than vanadium alone in mimicking the effects of insulin.

The vanadium-based amino acids could be used to stand in for insulin for Type II diabetes. Those compounds would not be affected by problems of insulin resistance.

More than two decades ago, Yoram Shechter, a professor of biological chemistry, was one of the first scientists to discover vanadium, a metallic trace element that mimics most of the metabolic effects of insulin in tissue studies and has a greater antidiabetic potency than vanadium itself.

Since that discovery, scientists at the Rehovot-based institute and elsewhere have conducted studies aimed at utilizing vanadium in the treatment of diabetes as an artificial substitute for insulin, and one that can be given in pill form.

Wide use of vanadium as a substitute for insulin has been stymied until now by the fact that the element, like many other metal ions, is toxic in the high concentrations that must be used to make it effective. The Weizmann researchers created these vanadium-related amino acids with less toxicity and greater antidiabetic potency than vanadium itself.

Their results show that the new compounds, patented through Yeda Research and Development Co. Ltd., are effective in regulating glucose levels in diabetic laboratory animals when given in small amounts.

"We are developing these substances for clinical use," said Nurit Ayad, CEO of start-up company LAPID Pharma ceuticals Ltd., created recently by Pamot Venture Capital Fund and Yeda. Further animal studies must be conducted to show whether the compounds are appropriate for application in humans. n