Efficient mucus permeation and tight junction opening by dissociable “mucus-inert” agent coated trimethyl chitosan nanoparticles for oral insulin delivery

Oral administration of protein drugs is greatly impeded by the lack of drug carriers that can efficiently overcome the absorption barriers of mucosa tissue, which consists of not only epithelium but also a blanket of mucus gel. We herein report a novel self-assembled nanoparticle (NP) platform for oral delivery of insulin by facilitating the efficient permeation through both of these two barriers. The NP possesses a core composed of insulin and trimethyl chitosan (TMC), and a dissociable “mucus-inert” hydrophilic coating of N-(2-hydroxypropyl) methacrylamide copolymer (pHPMA) derivative. The NPs exhibited free Brownian motion and excellent permeability in mucus, which enabled the access of the NP core to the epithelial cell surface underneath the mucus. Moreover, investigation of NP behavior showed that the pHPMA molecules started to dissociate as the NP permeates through mucus, and the TMC NP core was then exposed to facilitate transepithelial transport via paracellular pathway. The pHPMA coating significantly improved transepithelial transport of TMC-based NP and their ability to open tight junctions between the mucus-secreting epithelial cells. Moreover, in diabetic rats, pHPMA coated NPs generated a prominent hypoglycemic response following oral administration, and exhibited a relative bioavailability 2.8-fold higher than that of uncoated TMC-based NPs. Our study provided the evidence of using pHPMA as “mucus-inert” agent to enhance mucus permeation of TMC-based NPs, and validated a novel strategy to overcome the multiple absorption barriers using NP platform with dissociable hydrophilic coating and TMC-based core possessing tight junction-opening ability.