Development of targeted insulin quantum dot complex for effectivenasal administration in alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that cause is still unknown, irreversible and responsible for individual mortality and morbidity. Therapeutics used in AD, which has a significant economic burden on the health system, provide only symptomatic treatment. Insulin is a neuromodulatory molecule required for neuronal growth and differentiation in the central nervous system (CNS), and it has been understood that insulin that can be targeted to the brain can ameliorate AD. However, in order for insulin, which is a large molecule, to pass the CNS, it must be able to bypass the blood brain barrier (BBB). For this purpose, the nasal route of administration is preferred and a new drug delivery system, carbon quantum dots (CQDs), has been developed with the size of 2-10 nm to protect the insulin molecule from biodegradation. At the same time, the prepared insulin CQDs complex was prepared as an in situ gel in order to increase the residence time in the nasal mucosa. In this studies, a thermoreversible mucoadhesive in situ gel formulation was developed in order to increase the residence time of the insulin molecule complexed with CQDs in the nasal region. Characterization studies, fluorescent properties, quantum yields, rheological and mechanical properties, physicochemical stability, in vitro release and ex vivo permeation studies of the prepared formulations were carried out. As a results developed formulatin was found to be capable enough to deliver insülin molecule to the brain in a targeted manner.