A step towards glucose control with a novel nanomagnetic-insulin for diabetes care

• Published in: International journal of pharmaceutics 2021-05, Vol.601, p.120587-120587, Article 120587
• Main Authors: Yin, Ruixue, Qian, Xu, Kang, Liangfa, Wang, Kemin, Zhang, Hongbo, Yang, Shih-Mo, Zhang, Wenjun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Diabetes; Drug delivery; Insulin; Magnetic nanoparticles; Nanomedicine
• ISSN: 0378-5173; 1873-3476
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2021.120587

A novel strategy to prolong insulin action and remotely modulate hypoglycemic dynamics in vivo was proposed on the basis of the administration of insulin-conjugated magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs-Ins). [Display omitted] Massive efforts have been devoted to insulin delivery for diabetes care. Achieving a long-term tight-regulated blood glucose level with a low risk of hypoglycemia remains a great challenge. In this study we propose a novel strategy to efficiently regulate insulin action after insulin is injected or released into patient body aiming to achieve better glycemic control, which is achieved by the administration of insulin-conjugated magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs-Ins). We show that the locomotion of MNPs-Ins can be controlled to reach a target site on an in vitro microfluidic platform, which may open a way to modulate the physiological effect of insulin in a remote-control manner. Most importantly, the in vivo blood glucose regulation of the MNPs-Ins was performed on diabetic mice to understand the glycemic control performance. The results showed that the MNPs-Ins can achieve a better glycemic control with longer effective drug duration while not causing hypoglycemia and a magnetic-modulated hypoglycemic dynamics. Moreover, the in vivo histochemistry experiments confirmed the good biocompatibility of MNPs-Ins. Along with our on-going research on the possibility of the recycle and reuse of the MNPs-Ins, the finding presented in this paper may manifest a fascinating potential in insulin delivery in the near future.