Recent advances in drug delivery systems for anti-diabetic drugs: a review.

Almost 200 million people worldwide are found to be affected by Diabetes mellitus (DM). DM is a metabolic disorder which occurs due to reduced insulin action and/or insulin secretion in the body. Reduced or inactive insulin results in imbalanced food metabolism. With the progression of disease, pathological changes like nephropathy, retinopathy and cardiovascular complications start occurring in the body. DM is mainly categorized into 2 types: type 1 DM and type 2 DM. Type 1 is generally treated through insulin replacement therapy. Type 2 DM is treated with oral hypoglycemics. Oral hypoglycemics are classified into 5 types: sulfonylureas, biguanides, α-glucosidase inhibitors, meglitinide analogues and thiazolidinediones. Conventional dosage forms of most of these drugs bear some drawbacks such as frequent dosing, short half live, and low bioavailability. Therefore, to alleviate the drawbacks associated with conventional dosage forms, efforts have been made in the area of novel and controlled drug delivery system for oral hypoglycemics. Present review highlights various novel and controlled drug delivery systems that have been investigated by different researchers for achieving sustained and controlled drug delivery of oral hypoglycemics and for overcoming the limitations related with the conventional dosage forms of oral hypoglycemics.