A skin-permeable polymer for non-invasive transdermal insulin delivery.

ABSTRACT: Non-invasive skin permeation is widely used for convenient transdermal delivery of small-molecule therapeutics (less than 500 Da) with appropriate hydrophobicities¹. However, it has long been deemed infeasible for large molecules-particularly polymers, proteins and peptides^2,3-due to the formidable barrier posed by the skin structure. Here we show that the fast skin-permeable polyzwitterion poly[2-(N-oxide-N,N-dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate] (OP) can efficiently penetrate the stratum corneum, viable epidermis and dermis into circulation. OP is protonated to be cationic and is therefore enriched in the acidic sebum and paracellular stratum corneum lipids containing fatty acids, and subsequently diffuses through the intercorneocyte lipid lamella. Beneath the stratum c

SUBMITTER: Wei Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12695667 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature