Advanced Nanostructures for Oral Insulin Delivery

Abstract

1. Issues: Oral insulin therapy is an efficient approach for the treatment and management of Type I and Type II diabetes. Extensive research has been carried out for oral delivery of insulin. The various physicochemical concerns affecting the permeability and dissolution are physical and chemical barriers, solubility, molecular weight, and partition coefficient. Oral insulin mimics the endogenous pathway of insulin; it suffers from first pass metabolism. The advances in nanomedicine result in a more robust insulin delivery system. The utilization of nanoparticles possesses advantages like access to small areas of cell and small volume determination of the analyte. 2. Major Advances: The development of nanotechnology has resulted in a new approach to oral insulin delivery. Certain barriers exist in the mechanism of absorption of insulin which can be overcome by nanostructured insulin delivery. We reviewed the recent advances in nanostructured insulin delivery systems. Liquid crystalline nanoparticles, molecularly imprinted hydrogels, lipid-based carriers, polymeric carriers, iron oxide nanoparticles, gold nanoparticles, and silica nanoparticles are among the advanced oral insulin delivery systems. Nanostructures using the natural polymers like chitosan, dextran, and alginate are also discussed. All the developed system proves to a promising approach in the oral delivery of insulin. Biomimetic molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) nanoparticles act as a potential form of oral insulin delivery system due to specificity and selectivity of the imprint to the polymer, whereas liquid crystalline nanoparticles act as thermodynamically stable structure in oral insulin delivery. Various nanostructures under development are covered in this chapter.