In recent years, diabetes has become globally prevalent. Fortunately, artificial insulin is readily available and has been an invaluable tool in treating diabetes. The current therapeutic regime for diabetes include blood testing, insulin injections, and storage of insulin. These methods are often efficient, but are dependent on the patient’s level of self-care. Insulin travels through the body in hexamers; however, insulin acts individually on the cell surface.  In previous work, we have found that insulin bound to nanodiamonds (NDs) have no clear preference for number of insulin monomers bound to the NDs.  These observations suggest that the insulin-insulin interaction is less than the insulin-ND interaction.  To study this observation, the pH dependence of this insulin-ND complex will be investigated.  By varying the pH, it is envisioned that the insulin will release from the ND.  The release of the insulin will be quantified with UV-Vis spectroscopy and Bradford assays.  The results are expected to reveal marked differences in the survivability of insulin for pure insulin versus the insulin-nanodiamond mixture in varying pH environments.

Stability of insulin bound on nanodiamonds

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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