Amélia M. Silva, Angelo A. Izzo, Antonello Santini, Tatiana N. Pashirova, Alessandra Durazzo, Massimo Lucarini, Selma B. Souto, Joana R. Campos, Eliana B. Souto, Patrícia Severino, Lucia Ya. Zakharova, Souto, Eliana B., Souto, Selma B., Campos, Joana R., Severino, Patricia, Pashirova, Tatiana N., Zakharova, Lucia Y., Silva, Amélia M., Durazzo, Alessandra, Lucarini, Massimo, Izzo, ANGELO ANTONIO, Santini, Antonello, and Universidade do Minho
Diabetes mellitus, an incurable metabolic disease, is characterized by changes in the homeostasis of blood sugar levels, being the subcutaneous injection of insulin the first line treatment. This administration route is however associated with limited patients compliance, due to the risk of pain, discomfort and local infection. Nanoparticles have been proposed as insulin carriers to make possible the administration of the peptide via friendlier pathways without the need of injection, i.e., via oral or nasal routes. Nanoparticles stand for particles in the nanometer range that can be obtained from different materials (e.g., polysaccharides, synthetic polymers, lipid) and are commonly used with the aim to improve the physicochemical stability of the loaded drug and thereby its bioavailability. This review discusses the use of different types of nanoparticles (e.g., polymeric and lipid nanoparticles, liposomes, dendrimers, niosomes, micelles, nanoemulsions and also drug nanosuspensions) for improved delivery of different oral hypoglycemic agents in comparison to conventional therapies., The authors acknowledge the financial support received from Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT/MCT) and from European Funds (PRODER/COMPETE) under the project reference M-ERA-NET/0004/2015-PAIRED, co-financed by FEDER, under the Partnership Agreement PT2020. The authors also acknowledge the support of the research project: “Nutraceutica come supporto nutrizionale nel paziente oncologico”, CUP: B83D18000140007., info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion