"Once ingested, insulin must navigate a challenging obstacle course before it can be effectively absorbed into the bloodstream," says senior study author Samir Mitragotri.
The researchers created a complex pill coating, designed to shield the insulin from gastric acid and the enzymes of the small intestine and also be able to penetrate the intestine's protective barriers.
Type 1 diabetes is a non-preventable condition. Or is it? Researchers investigate.
"When a protein molecule such as insulin enters the intestine," says first author Amrita Banerjee, "there are many enzymes whose function is to degrade the proteins into smaller amino acids." However, she adds, "the ionic liquid-borne insulin remains stable."
"Our approach is like a Swiss Army knife, where one pill has tools for addressing each of the obstacles that are encountered."
"It has been the holy grail of drug delivery to develop ways to give protein and peptide drugs like insulin by mouth, instead of injection," explains Mark Prausnitz, Regents' Professor and J. Erskine Love, Jr. Chair in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
"This study shows remarkable results where insulin given by mouth in combination with an ionic liquid works about as well as a conventional injection. The implications of this work to medicine could be huge, if the findings can be translated into pills that safely and effectively administer insulin and other peptide drugs to humans," he adds.