CURRENT ADVANCES IN NANOTECHNOLOGY FOR DELIVERY OF ANTI-DIABETIC DRUGS: A REVIEW

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is being one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality, which seriously threatens the health of human beings. Worldwide around 366 million people are found to be affected by diabetes. DM is a chronic condition associated with abnormally high levels of sugar (glucose) in the blood. Absence or insufficient production of insulin, or an inability of the body to properly use insulin causes diabetes. DM can be classified as either type 1 or type 2. Type 1 diabetes conditions or insulin-dependent, which treated by insulin therapy. Type 2 diabetes or non-insulin-dependent, which treated by oral hypoglycemic drugs.  Conventional insulin and other oral anti-diabetic agents delivery associated with many drawbacks, the need for frequent monitoring of blood glucose, multiple insulin injections, and adjustment of insulin dosages, self-injection, and difficulties in using the vial and syringe technique are among the barriers to patient compliance. Most oral anti-diabetic drugs exhibit low oral bioavailability and need frequent dosing owing to short half-lives, resulting in poor patient compliance. Therefore, to overcome such drawbacks associated with conventional dosage forms, several research works have been made in the area of nanotechnology; nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems have considerable potential for the treatment of DM. This paper illustrates the various nanoparticles – based drug delivery systems that have been investigated by different researchers to provide more effective delivery of anti-diabetic drugs.