The Research team of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) headed by Prof.T.Govindaraju developed the Silk Fibroin (SF) formulated using biocompatible additives and an injectable SF hydrogel (iSFH) to ease the insulin delivery for diabetic patients.
Key Points:
i.The scientists of JNCASR has found that the subcutaneous injection of insulin with iSFH in rats formed an active depot under the skin helps in slowly leaching out the insulin and restoring the physiological glucose homeostasis for 4 days with no risk of low blood sugar with burst of high concentration of insulin into blood. These additives restrict the mobility of SF protein backbone and result in rapid gelation.
ii.To support the injectability the microstructure provides mechanical strength and porous morphology of iSFH allows the human recombinant insulin encapsulation in its active form in diabetic rats.
iii.The multiple subcutaneous insulin injections are associated with pain, local tissue necrosis, infection, nerve damage and locally concentrated insulin amyloidosis which is responsible to achieve physiological glucose homeostasis. With controlled and sustained insulin delivery this can be overcomed.
iv.For the diabetic patients the iSFH is proven to be an effective insulin delivery tool with high mechanical strength, biocompatibility, encapsulation, storage and demonstration of sustained delivery of insulin.
v.This will help in development of oral insulin delivery formulation in the future.
Fibroin and Hydrogel:
i.Fibroin is an insoluble protein present in silk produced by the moths and other insects which has three chains of heavy and light glycoprotein.
ii.Hydrogel is a three dimensional(3D) network of hydrophilic polymers which swells in water maintaining the structure due to physical cross-linking of polymer chains.
About JNCASR:
President– G.U Kulkarni
Located– Jakkur, Karnataka
Established in– 1989
