Development of polysaccharide-coated layered double hydroxide nanocomposites for enhanced oral insulin delivery

Abstract Oral insulin (INS) is predicted to have the most therapeutic advantages in treating diabetes to repress hepatic glucose production through its potential to mimic the endogenous insulin pathway. Many oral insulin delivery systems have been investigated. Layered double hydroxide (LDH) as an inorganic material has been widely used in drug delivery thanks to its appealing features such as good biocompatibility, low toxicity, and excellent loading capability. However, when used in oral drug delivery, the effectiveness of LDH is limited due to the acidic degradation in the stomach. In this study, to overcome these challenges, chitosan (Chi) and alginate (Alg) dual-coated LDH nanocomposites with the loading of insulin (Alg-Chi-LDH@INS) were developed by the layered-by-layered method for oral insulin delivery with dynamic size of ~ 350.8 nm, negative charge of ~ − 13.0 mV, and dispersity index 0.228. The insulin release profile was evaluated by ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy. The drug release profiles evidenced that alginate and chitosan coating partially protect insulin release from a burst release in acidic conditions. The analysis using flow cytometry showed that chitosan coating significantly enhanced the uptake of LDH@INS by Caco-2 cells compared to unmodified LDH and free insulin. Further in the in vivo study in streptozocin-induced diabetic mice, a significant hypoglycemic effect was maintained following oral administration with great biocompatibility (~ 50% blood glucose level reduction at 4 h). This research has thus provided a potential nanocomposite system for oral delivery of insulin. Graphical Abstract