Gelation
microneedle (GMNs) based vaccinations with tumor antigens
have been considered to be an attractive method for transcutaneous
immunization because of their superior ability to deliver vaccines
through the stratum corneum (SC) in a minimally invasive manner, which
subsequently induces adaptive antitumor immunity. In this study, molecular
dynamics (MD) uniaxial tension simulations were conducted to predict
the formulation of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA; possesses high water
solubility) and poly(methyl vinyl ether-altmaleic anhydride) (PMVEMA;
possesses high mechanical strength) blend that has the strongest mechanical
properties. To validate the accuracy of the Dreiding potential for
these two polymers, their densities and Hildebrand solubility parameters
were first predicted using MD simulations. These values exhibited
good agreement with the corresponding experimental results, indicating
the accuracy of the Dreiding potential for the polymers. Regarding
the simulation results, the number density of H-bonds between PVA
and PMVEMA was the highest at 50% PMVEMA, which can significantly
enhance the mechanical strength of pristine PVA for enhanced skin
immunization. In terms of further experimental validation, evidence
from mechanical strength, solubility, in vitro porcine
skin penetration tests, and in vivo immunization
were consistent with our simulation predictions. In addition, our
results indicated that delivery of ovalbumin (OVA) using GMN patches
fabricated using PVA/PMVEMA (50%/50%) provided even stronger immune
responses. Using this molecular simulation procedure, the optimal
fraction of PVA/PMVEMA composite for the strongest mechanical properties
can be rapidly predicted to reduce research time and costs in related
experiments.