New Drug Delivery Approach for GLP-1 Drugs

A new oral option will make weight loss and diabetes medications more widely accessible

Duke professor Ashutosh Chilkoti in his lab
Ashutosh Chilkoti, a Duke biomedical engineering professor, in his lab.

This is a summary of a story by Ken Kingery on Pratt School of Engineering.

Duke biomedical engineers are developing a new way to deliver a broad range of peptide-based drugs orally that works as well as injection – the traditional method.

Peptides are tiny building blocks the body uses for many natural processes. Some of the most widely known peptide medicines today include insulin for diabetes and GLP‑1 drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy, which help people manage weight and blood sugar. These medications usually must be injected because stomach acid quickly breaks them down if they’re swallowed.

The new technique could make the delivery of GLP-1 drugs easier and could help people with osteoporosis, HIV, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome and other ailments as well.

Duke researchers focused on an elastin-like polypeptide – or ELP – which the body produces naturally and regulates many biological processes. Researchers designed the ELPs to toggle back and forth between solid and liquid shape based on variables like acidity and temperature. That protected the medicines during the trip through the stomach. Once it bypasses stomach acids and reaches the intestines, the drug is released for the body to absorb.

“Drug delivery has long been one of our primary targets, and this use case is particularly well suited to our platform,” said biomedical engineering professor Ashutosh Chilkoti.

The new Duke technique is not the only oral delivery system for these sorts of drugs available but differs in its ability to avoid stomach acid. The others attempt to neutralize stomach acid and require patients to take medication on an empty stomach.

In tests with mice, a GLP‑1 drug delivered using this method worked just as well as the injected version at reducing weight, even when the animals had access to high‑calorie food.

The research appeared online May 13 in the journal Cell Biomaterials.

An oral version could make these medications easier for many people to use. About one in eight Americans has already taken a GLP‑1 drug, and many patients dislike or fear injections. Pills would remove that barrier and could make treatment simpler and more appealing.

The approach may also help many other peptide medicines move from injections to pills. That could affect treatments for conditions ranging from diabetes to digestive disorders, HIV, and osteoporosis.

To read more about this new drug delivery approach, go to Pratt School of Engineering.