Researchers at the University of Lille (France) have developed a insulin-loaded patch prototype that adheres comfortably inside the cheek for the purpose of administering this drug less invasive.
The control of sugar levels in blood requires permanent attention for people diagnosed with diabetes. A healthier diet and increased physical activity can help, but many sufferers do too need to regularly inject insulin, the main hormone that regulates sugar.
Thus, 13.8% of Spaniards over the age of 18, the equivalent of more than 5.3 million, have type 2 diabetes, according to the results of the ‘[email protected]’ epidemiological study.
And diabetics inject insulin mainly with pens or syringes, or semi-permanent pumps are implanted. But these methods are still invasive and uncomfortable, and require safe disposal of needles or biological waste and sterile conditions.
An alternative to the traditional method
Researchers have explored other ways to deliver insulin through the skin, such as gel lotions. But the skin is too good barrier, and drugs enter the body slowly. Instead, the membrane that lines the inside of the mouth it is very thin, about a quarter of the thickness of the skin, which makes it a potential place for drugs to easily enter the bloodstream.
So French researcher Sabine Szunerits and her team wanted to see if a material they had previously developed, a polymer fiber mat that is activated by heat to release drugs, could stick to the cheek lining and deliver insulin.
The study
The researchers first soaked small squares of a nanofiber mat, made of electrospun fibers of poly(acrylic acid), B-cyclodextrin and reduced graphene oxide, in a solution with insulin for three hours.
Next, the team applied the insulin-laden patches to the cheek linings and corneas of the pigs. Heating the material with a near-infrared laser for 10 minutes at 122F activated the material and released insulin in the two types of membranes. several times faster than through the skin.
In addition, the researchers placed the patches in vivo inside the cheeks of three insulin-dependent pigs. cheek liners did not show any irritation no visual changes from the heat of the laser.
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As soon as the material was activated, the blood sugar levels of pigs decreased. Simultaneously, the animals’ plasma insulin levels increased, which the researchers say is proof of concept that this preliminary platform is effective in getting insulin into the bloodstream.
By last, six human volunteers put on a placebo version of the patch inside their cheeks, and they said they they felt comfortable for a period of two hours. The researchers say their next step is carry out more studies preclinical studies of the prototype in animal models.