The current therapeutic regime for diabetes includes blood testing, insulin injections, and storage of insulin. These methods are often efficient, but are dependent on the patient’s level of self-care. Our study on protein-nanodiamond (ND) interaction utilizes NDs as a primary vehicle for drug distribution throughout the body. This would allow for fewer patient errors, as the insulin-ND mixture can be placed within the patient and can travel through the body on its own. To be utilized as a commercial product, the insulin-ND complex will need to be robust enough to survive injection, and then fragile enough to release the insulin. Preliminary studies of this group were focused on the higher concentration protein-protein interactions between the insulin hexamers versus the protein-ND interaction. Based on previous data, it was found that the protein-protein interaction is stronger than the protein-surface interaction. In this work, we concentrate on the protein-ND interactions more than the protein-protein, therefore, in a much lower protein concentration region. The results are expected to reveal meaningful differences in the survivability of insulin for pure insulin versus the insulin-ND mixture.

Surface attachment of insulin upon nanodiamonds

255th National Meeting (2018)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.