Buccal Transmucosal Controlled Drug Delivery System: Emerging Strategy For Oral Antidiabetic Therapy - A Review

Diabetes mellitus is a common long-term illness that requires steady medical treatment. Standard oral medicines for diabetes often have problems like low absorption, being broken down by the liver before they work, and patients forgetting to take their doses. Buccal drug delivery, which means giving medicine through the inside lining of the mouth, is a promising alternative. It helps control how fast the drug is released and avoids breakdown by the liver. This review examines the structure and function of the buccal mucosa, its drug-absorption capacity, and its utility for drug delivery. Different systems, such as tablets, patches, films, gels, and sticky polymers, are discussed, along with methods to help drugs pass through the mouth lining more easily. The article also explains how buccal drug delivery affects the behavior of medicines in the body, especially for diabetes drugs like Metformin and Glibenclamide. Clinical benefits, recent research, and future opportunities with new technologies are highlighted. Buccal drug delivery is convenient and can improve absorption, but it has limitations, such as poor absorption, mouth irritation, a small absorption area, salivary washout, low permeability, and commercial unavailability for some drugs. Similarly, many oral diabetes medicines, like metformin and alpha-glucosidase inhibitors, can irritate the stomach and intestines, making it harder for patients to continue treatment. These irritations can occur due to changes in pH, changes in gut motility and bile salts, fermentation of food, causing extra fluid in the intestines, or infections such as fungal overgrowth with SGLT2 inhibitors. This review aims to give a clear overview of buccal drug delivery for diabetes and its potential to improve treatment.