Factors affecting the buccal delivery of deformable nanovesicles based on insulin–phospholipid complex: an in vivo investigation

Deformable nanovesicles (DNVs) have been used in the buccal delivery of biomacromolecules due to their ability to enhance drug penetration. However, no breakthroughs have been made until now due to limited understanding of the factors affecting in vivo buccal delivery. In this study, we designed a series of DNVs, based on an insulin–phospholipid complex (IPC-DNVs), to investigate the influence of drug dose, buccal administration methods, and key quality characteristics of IPC-DNVs for buccal delivery. IPC-DNVs showed a non-linear dose–response relationship between 8 and 12 IU. There was no significant effect of drug delivery site (sublingual mucosa/buccal mucosa) or ligation time (15 or 30 min) on buccal absorption of IPC-DNVs. However, the area above the curve of reduction in blood glucose level overtime (AAC(0–6h)) for oral mucosa administration was significantly higher than that for buccal mucosa administration. Increasing the drug concentration in IPC-DNVs led to a decrease in AAC(0–6h). This might be due to local leakage of DNVs, while squeezing through biological barriers with high concentration of insulin, thus hindering the subsequent delivery of DNVs. IPC-DNVs, measuring 80–220 nm in size, did not significantly affect AAC(0–6h). However, when the size was increased to approximately 400 nm, AAC(0–6h) decreased, thus suggesting that IPC-DNVs with reasonable size were more effective. Additionally, increased deformability of IPC-DNVs might cause drugs to leak easily, thus reducing the promoting effect of buccal absorption. Our results clarified the effect of characteristics of IPC-DNVs on buccal delivery in vivo and provided meaningful support for the design of dosage form of DNVs.