Review of point-of-care platforms for diabetes: (2) medications and devices

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic heterogeneous metabolic disease characterized primarily by hyperglycemia due to impaired insulin secretion or impaired insulin efficacy. In recent years, a number of novel point-of-care platforms have been developed for sustained and controlled drug delivery. These platforms allow the patients to ingest insulin via transbuccal, nasal, inhalation, transdermal or subcutaneous routes, thereby effectively releasing insulin molecules the need for inconvenient and frequent needle injections. There are several issues needed to be addressed in developing such as platform: How many routes of administration are available for a point-of-care medication platform? What device components and configurations are available? What is the status of their application? This review will highlight our early attempts to address these questions. It is expected this review could provide a comprehensive overview of the medication platforms for diabetes, as well as open new avenues for developing the next-generation drug delivery devices for patients with diabetes.