Singapore develops oral insulin nanoparticles as alternative to injections Singapore develops oral insulin nanoparticles as alternative to injections 13 January 2021 | News The NTU team is now in talks with a pharmaceutical company to further improve the nanoparticles’ function Image credit- NTU Singapore Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed insulin nanoparticles that may one day become the basis for an oral medicine, and an alternative to insulin injections for diabetic patients.
In a pre-clinical study, the NTU Singapore team fed insulin-containing nanoparticles to rats and found that insulin increased in their blood minutes later.
Delivering insulin orally would be preferable over insulin jabs for patients because it causes less pain than jabs, and could thus lead to improved patient compliance. But oral dosage remains a challenge. As insulin is a protein, it gets broken down in the gastrointestinal tract before it can even reach the bloodstream to regulate blood glucose.