Lay summary
Diabetes mellitus is a major global health concern with over 240,000 people with diabetes in New Zealand alone, necessitating the development of innovative and effective long-term treatment strategies. Current treatments include frequent invasive injections (to overcome poor oral bioavailability of <1%) of the protein insulin or peptide exendin-4, which contributes to both patient compliance issues and safety risks. Patients would typically prefer to take their medication orally. Our proposed research aims to break through this oral delivery hurdle by developing a smarter nano delivery system for protein and peptide drugs that mimics and exploits natural gastrointestinal nutrient absorption pathways. This new smart oral delivery system incorporates taurine or phenolic acid derivatives as ligands (binding structures), allowing specific targeting of the delivery system to their receptors. The proposed research will develop a safe and effective treatment for diabetes with improved compliance and safety.