The dynamic assembly structure of insulin in oral nanoencapsulations studied by SANS

The oral delivery of insulin in diabetes treatment can improve patient compliance and avoidance of peripheral hyperinsulinemia. The mainbarriers faced by oral insulin are degradation by low pH and proteolytic enzymes in the gastrointestinal tract. The construction of oral insulin delivery systems need to be designed to keep insulin in stable hexamer assembly system in physiological environment. This project is focused on understanding the structure and dynamic assembly of insulin in different environments with or without protection of nanoencapsulations. Due to the difference of scattering length densities (SLD) of neutron between insulin and nanoencapsulations, we aim to establish an integrative structural and dynamical in situ characterizing platform by combining various neutron scattering techniques. Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) combined with contrast match strategy was used to characterize the structure of insulin in solution and in nanoencapsulations, and to investigate the dynamic assembly structure of insulin with or without nanoencapsulations in response to different environment.