INVESTIGATING ORAL INSULIN DELIVERY USING SILVER NANOPARTICLE AS A PENETRATION PROMOTER

Diabetes are exponentially expanding all across the world from underdeveloped to most industrial countries. Only insulin is the key therapeutic molecule for the management of diabetes. Due to the chemical limitation of the proteolytic molecule of insulin, insulin is required to be delivered through the intravenous injection. It causes irritating pains and epidemic spread through needles. To overcome these problems, a novel method of insulin oral delivery was created and investigated using silver nanoparticles in a rodent experimental model. Silver nanoparticle has not been tested for an oral insulin delivery for enhancing the oral absorption.

Methods: Insulin and silver nanoparticle solutions were mixed thoroughly with predetermined ratio. The adjuvant formulation of the solutions was gavaged orally for various dosages, and blood glucose was monitored. The data was compared with negative control by dosing insulin only.

Results: Experimental results demonstrated that nanoparticle-assisted oral insulin with 1:1 ratio decreased the blood glucose the most up to maximal decrease35.25%. This was significantly more than that from the non-nanoparticle oral insulin delivery of maximal decrease,up to-18.25%. When compared with AUC of % BG decrease-time curves, the AUC from the nanoparticle-assisted group was 250% higher than that from the non-nanoparticle group.

Conclusion: The silver nanoparticle could promote the oral insulin delivery significantly, in comparison to the insulin delivery without silver nanoparticle as hypothesised. Further study might be warranted for understanding the mechanism of penetration enhancing capability of silver nanoparticle.