Administration of Silver Nanoparticles in Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis on Animal Studies

Biological features of silver nanoparticles in rising the insulin level of diabetic animal models were considered in recent years, which resulted in decreasing hyperglycemia condition. We reviewed the published literature to investigate the possible role of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) throughout the treatment of diabetes mellitus in animal studies. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we performed a search throughout the English literature of electronic databases, including Scopus, PubMed, and ISI Web of Science, up to the date of May 22, 2020. Primary outcomes and data regarding fast blood sugar (FBS), lipid profile, and liver enzyme were collected from the available articles, while the studies that did not provide sufficient information on the effects of silver nanoparticles through the course of diabetes mellitus were excluded. Our search yielded 1283 results that included five animal studies in the meta-analysis. The comparison between the plasma insulin level of the diabetic group treated by Ag-NPs with the diabetic control group displayed no significant differences with the P values = 0.299. In addition, significant differences were revealed by comparing the FBS level of the diabetic group treated by Ag-NPs with the diabetic control group (P value < 0.001). According to the present meta-analysis, the application of Ag-NPs in animal models resulted in displaying the anti-diabetic effects, which can be applied in future treatments. Furthermore, a correlation was noticed between these nanoparticles and the reduction of serum FBS among diabetic cases.