In an answer to the challenge of enzymatic instability and low oral bioavailability of proteins/peptides, a new type of drug-delivery vesicle has been developed. The preparation, based on sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) embedded in chitosan gel, was used to successfully deliver the model drug-insulin. The self-assembled SDS/β-CD vesicles were prepared and characterized by particle size, zeta potential, appearance, microscopic morphology and entrapment efficiency. In addition, both the interaction of insulin with vesicles and the stability of insulin loaded in vesicles in the presence of pepsin were investigated. The vesicles were crosslinked into thermo-sensitive chitosan/β-glycerol phosphate solution for an in-situ gel to enhance the dilution stability. The in vitro release characteristics of insulin from gels in media at different pH values were investigated. The insulin loaded vesicles-chitosan hydrogel (IVG) improved the dilution stability of the vesicles and provided pH-selective sustained release compared with insulin solution-chitosan hydrogel (ISG). In vitro, IVG exhibited slow release in acidic solution and relatively quick release in neutral solutions to provide drug efficacy. In simulated digestive fluid, IVG showed better sustained release and insulin protection properties compared with ISG. Thus IVG might improve the stability of insulin during its transport in vivo and contribute to the bioavailability and therapeutic effect of insulin.

Tremendous efforts have been devoted to the enhancement of drug solubility using nanotechnologies, but few of them are capable to produce drug particles with sizes less than a few nanometers. This challenge has been addressed here by using biocompatible versatile -cyclodextrin (-CD) metal-organic framework (CD-MOF) large molecular cages in which azilsartan (AZL) was successfully confined producing clusters in the nanometer range. This strategy allowed to improve the bioavailability of AZL in Sprague-Dawley rats by 9.7-fold after loading into CD-MOF. The apparent solubility of AZL/CD-MOF was enhanced by 340-fold when compared to the pure drug. Based on molecular modeling, a dual molecular mechanism of nanoclusterization and complexation of AZL inside the CD-MOF cages was proposed, which was confirmed by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and synchrotron radiation-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (SR-FTIR) techniques. In a typical cage-like unit of CD-MOF, three molecules of AZL were included by the -CD pairs, whilst other three AZL molecules formed a nanocluster inside the 1.7 nm sized cavity surrounded by six -CDs. This research demonstrates a dual molecular mechanism of complexation and nanoclusterization in CD-MOF leading to significant improvement in the bioavailability of insoluble drugs.