Pharmacokinetics Analysis of Controlled Insulin Delivery from Biodegradable Polymer Matrix

Abstract

Diabetes is a group of metabolic disorders in which there are high blood sugar levels over a prolonged period. As of 2015, an estimated 415 million people had diabetes worldwide. Insulin is the most effective and safe medicines needed to stable the blood sugar level and so treat diabetes. Current insulin administration requires daily subcutaneous injection, which is not a favorable choice of patients and physicians. Biodegradable polymer delivery systems have been developed and demonstrate enormous potentials for therapeutics, including those within insulin. However, there is no well-developed pharmacokinetic model to analyze and predict the insulin release from polymer delivery system. In this presented work, we have developed a pharmacokinetic compartment model to describe insulin delivery from polymer matrix. PLGA degradation model was incorporated into the compartment model, which enables quantitative comparison between PLGA insulin controlled release and conventional insulin injection. Further, this model revealed that PLGA chemical properties significantly influence the insulin controlled release in pharmacokinetics. This novel model overcomes drawbacks of the conventional compartment models developed so far and provides insight into insulin controlled drug delivery system designing for more patient-friendly and personal diabetic treatment.