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The study entailed formulation of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) upon reduction of chloroauric acid by modified apple polysaccharide (MAP). AuNPs were conjugated with insulin (INS) for its oral delivery to treat type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM). The size of MAP conjugated AuNPs loaded with INS was 124 ± 8.55 nm with zeta potential -10.5 ± 0.54 mV. The animal study carried out in streptozotocin induced rat model revealed that AuNPs conjugated insulin (AuNPs-INS) in high dose caused 3.36 folds decrease in blood glucose level in 240 min, whereas, orally administered INS failed to decrease the blood glucose level. The 28-day study also revealed better improvement in body weight, lipid profile, urea, creatinine and liver parameters in AuNPs-INS (high dose) for which the observed value was close with respect to intraperitoneally administrated insulin followed by medium dose of AuNPs-INS, low dose of AuNPS-INS, AuNPs alone and modified apple polysaccharide., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest Declared none., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Diabetic wound (DW) is a secondary application of uncontrolled diabetes and affects about 42.2% of diabetics. If the disease is left untreated/uncontrolled, then it may further lead to amputation of organs. In recent years, huge research has been done in the area of wound dressing to have a better maintenance of DW. These include gauze, films, foams or, hydrocolloid-based dressings as well as polysaccharide- and polymer-based dressings. In recent years, scaffolds have played major role as biomaterial for wound dressing due to its tissue regeneration properties as well as fluid absorption capacity. These are three-dimensional polymeric structures formed from polymers that help in tissue rejuvenation. These offer a large surface area to volume ratio to allow cell adhesion and exudate absorbing capacity and antibacterial properties. They also offer a better retention as well as sustained release of drugs that are directly impregnated to the scaffolds or the ones that are loaded in nanocarriers that are impregnated onto scaffolds. The present review comprehensively describes the pathogenesis of DW, various dressings that are used so far for DW, the limitation of currently used wound dressings, role of scaffolds in topical delivery of drugs, materials used for scaffold fabrication, and application of various polymer-based scaffolds for treating DW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polysaccharides (PS) represent a broad class of polymer-based compounds that have been extensively researched as therapeutics and excipients for drug delivery. As pharmaceutical carriers, PS have mostly found their use as adsorbents, suspending agents, as well as cross-linking agents for various formulations such as liposomes, nanoparticles, nanoemulsions, nano lipid carriers, microspheres etc. This is due to inherent properties of PS such as porosity, steric stability and swellability, insolubility in pH. There have been emerging reports on the use of PS as therapeutic agent due to its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties for various diseases. In particular, for Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis and inflammatory bowel disease. However, determining the dosage, treatment duration and effective technology transfer of these therapeutic moieties have not occurred. This is due to the fact that PS are still at a nascent stage of development to a full proof therapy for a particular disease. Recently, a combination of polysaccharide which act as a prebiotic and a probiotic have been used as a combination to treat various intestinal and colorectal (CRC) related diseases. This has proven to be beneficial, has shown good in vivo correlation and is well reported. The present review entails a detailed description on the role of PS used as a therapeutic agent and as a formulation pertaining to gastrointestinal diseases. • Polysaccharides (PS) have been widely used in various drug delivery technologies. • PS act via the MAPK and PI3/AKT signaling pathways to treat gastrointestinal diseases. • Probiotics and PS together are used as therapeutic agent as well as pharmaceutical carrier. • PS are used as crosslinking agents, stabilizing agents, solidifying and coating agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]