Glucose-responsive gel for self-regulated insulin delivery system

Abstract

Diabetes is not an infectious disease but its increasingly rapid and worldwide prevalence has been recognized as "pandemic". Despite the necessity for continuous and accurate glycemic control in the management of insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, the current palliative treatment relies almost solely on the patient-self injection of insulin, which not only impinges on quality of life of the patients but also fails to precisely control dose of insulin where the overdose must be strictly avoided otherwise causing serious hypoglycemia. Development of self-regulated insulin delivery systems is a long-standing challenge of materials science, for which exploitations of glucose oxidase and sugar-binding lectin are two prevalent strategies to install the function of glucose-sensitivity. These protein-based components, however, intolerant of long-term use and storage with their denaturing and cytotoxic natures, are hardly suitable for any implantable applications thus have not yet been in clinical usage to date. This review intends to provide an overview of the current efforts to develop a thoroughly synthetic alternative making use of a phenylboronic acid derivatized polyacrylamide gel.