Plant- and Microalgae-Based Biotechnological Strategies for Affordable and Non-Invasive Delivery of Antidiabetic Peptides

The prevalence of diabetes and its worldwide co-morbidities is escalating. Therefore, the number of users of therapeutic peptides including insulin analogs and glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs), will unavoidably increase in the coming years. However, access to these two antidiabetic classes remains limited in some countries due to their high cost. Even when available, their long-term therapeutic efficiency is often compromised by challenges in sustained treatment adherence, mainly resulting from their mode of administration through repeated subcutaneous injections. This repeated invasive delivery not only affects patient comfort but also complicates long-term disease management and monitoring. Therefore, there is an urgent need to improve the accessibility, affordability, and long-term patient adherence to insulin and GLP-1RAs. In this review, we highlight as promising alternatives the potential of plants and microalgae to serve as host organisms, as well as the use of their polysaccharides as drug carriers, for the production of low-cost and non-invasive antidiabetic drugs.