ORAL INSULIN DNA NANOPARTICLES AS IMMUNOMODULATION THERAPEUTIC STRATEGY FOR DIABETES

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is among the most prevalent metabolic diseases, affecting approximately 463 million people (9.3% of the global population) in 2019. Alarmingly, this number is expected to rise to 578 million (10.2%) by 2030. Diabetes is mainly characterized by chronic hyperglycemia, as a result of which the disease negatively impacts various vital systems of the organism. Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) develops as a result of the autoimmune destruction of islets of Langerhans (β-cells) of pancreas, which are essential for insulin synthesis and secretion. Conventional T1DM therapies exhibit effectiveness, but not without limitations. For instance, the most prevalent side effect of insulin administration is hypoglycemia, which is characterised by dizziness, mental confusion, and diaphoresis. These drawbacks highlight the need for improved therapeutic approaches. This research has an objective to develop a novel gene therapy strategy to delay the onset of T1DM through oral administration of an immunomodulatory agent. Specifically, we aimed to design a plasmid encoding an insulin peptide and a Lucia reporter gene. We also succeeded in synthesizing and characterizing chitosan nanoparticles for efficient plasmid delivery.