LAUSR

Purpose: To develop PEGylated mucin as a carrier system for oral insulin delivery. Methods: Varied ratios of snail cyst were molecularly modified with polyethylene glycol 4000 (PEG 4000). Briefly, In each case, 20 g quantities of snail cyst and PEG 4000 were separately dispersed in distilled water, stirred and allowed to stand for 24 h to produce a homogeneous dispersion and clear solution, respectively. The solution of PEG was added to the snail cyst dispersion, stirred and allowed 12 h for molecular interaction. The mixture was added to a 250-mL beaker containing 100 mL of light liquid paraffin. The microparticles were obtained after stirring and removing the paraffin using chilled acetone. The obtained PEGylated mucin matrices, which were subsequently loaded with insulin using a diffusion method, characterized for particles size, drug loading, encapsulation efficiency, in vitro drug release and evaluated for oral application in diabetic rats. Results: The polymer hybrids improved insulin encapsulation efficiency (max 82.3 %), gave. polydispersity indices that ranged from 0.11 ± 0.1 to 0.24 ± 0.2, zeta potential values between 28 ± 0.3 and 38 ± 1.1 mV. Insulin release was highest (68 % in 6 h) for batch C and was sustained for 10 h in simulated intestinal fluid. The optimized batch (C-5) showed higher hypoglycaemic activity (56.5 %) than control (0.5 %) in diabetic rats. Conclusion: The results suggest that PEGylated mucin can potentially be developed as a platform for oral insulin delivery.