Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology - Volume 15, Issue 7, 2014

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin and /or when the body became resistant to insulin actions. Type 1 diabetes (T1DM) (previously known as insulin-dependent, juvenile or childhood-onset) is characterized by an almost complete loss of insulin mainly due to selective autoimmune destruction of the pancreatic β-cells and requires daily administratio Read More

Type I diabetes mellitus (TIDM), a devastating health issue in all over the world, has been treated by successful transplantation of insulin secreting pancreatic islets. However, serious limitations such as the requirement of immunosuppressive drugs for recipient patients, side effects as a result of long-term use of drugs, and reduced functionality of islets at the transplantation site remain. Bioartificial pancreas that includes islets en Read More

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is mainly associated with impaired insulin secretion by the pancreatic β-cells, insulin resistance and elevated hepatic gluconeogenesis. Incretin based treatments for T2DM are now widely investigated and used. The incretin based therapies mainly include incretin hormones which are glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptides (GIP) and glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1) released from the end Read More

The treatment of Diabetes Mellitus (DM), a chronic disease, is primarily based upon administration of insulin forms to patients. Conventional subcutaneous administration is associated with a large number of complications, therefore, several new strategies have been developed. Amongst these strategies, oral insulin administration is much less invasive and, therefore, well tolerated. In recent years, various nanoformulation Read More

The oral route is the most suitable and physiological delivery route. Oral insulin delivery would minimize the health hazard implied in repeated injection, surpass complications arising from the need for sterile techniques associated with parenteral formulations and provide better glucose homeostasis. However, it is limited by various physiological barriers and still remains a scientific challenge. The desire to deliver insulin b Read More

Biotechnology has provided a wide array of therapeutic agents such as peptide, protein, vaccine and gene products that are currently mainly administered by means of injections. Therapeutic agents produced by biotechnological processes such as recombinant DNA technology, fermentation, tissue and cell culture technology as well as genetic engineering are usually large, hydrophilic molecules facing delivery c Read More

Anticoagulant therapy is widely used for the treatment and prophylaxis of deep vein thrombosis and coronary syndromes. Until now, drugs such as unfractionated heparin and low molecular weight heparins need to be administered parenterally. Parenteral administration results in lower patient compliance compared to oral therapy and for this reason, the focus of various research groups is to develop an oral heparin formulatio Read More

Biotechnology has been used for a long period of time in the most diverse scientific areas, making its journey in close contact with pharmaceutical sciences. Among the several products manufactured in biotechnological industry, peptides and proteins are in the front-line for the treatment of several diseases due to their selectivity, effective action and few side effects. However, orally administration route is not feasible for pep Read More

In the last decades several new biotechnologically-based therapeutics have been developed due to progress in genetic engineering. A growing challenge facing pharmaceutical scientists is formulating these compounds into oral dosage forms with adequate bioavailability. An increasingly popular approach to formulate biotechnology-based therapeutics is the use of lipid based formulation technologies. This review highlight Read More

The oral route is the most convenient and least expensive route of drug administration. Yet, it is accompanied by many physiological barriers to drug uptake including low stomach pH, intestinal enzymes and transporters, mucosal barriers, and high intestinal fluid shear. While many drug delivery systems have been developed for oral drug administration, the physiological components of the gastro intestinal tract remain f Read More