Topical iodine facilitates transdermal delivery of insulin

Amnon C. Sintov*, Uri Wormser

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

35 Scopus citations

Abstract

Transdermal delivery of insulin is a non-invasive alternative to the subcutaneous injection of insulin in diabetic patients. It has been found that skin pretreatment with iodine followed by a dermal application of insulin results in reduced glucose and elevated hormone levels in the plasma. Topical iodine protects the dermally applied insulin presumably by inactivation of endogenous sulfhydryls such as glutathione and gamma glutamylcysteine which can reduce the disulfide bonds of the hormone. Thus, the effect of iodine is mediated by retaining the potency of the hormone during its penetration via the skin into the circulation. The proposed procedure might be applicable for additional disulfide-containing peptides such as calcitonine, somatostatin, oxytocin/vasopressin and their analogs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)185-188
Number of pages4
JournalJournal of Controlled Release
Volume118
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2 Apr 2007

Keywords

  • Diabetes
  • Insulin
  • Iodine
  • Transdermal delivery

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