Microneedle Pre-treatment of Human Skin Improves 5-Aminolevulininc Acid (ALA)- and 5-Aminolevulinic Acid Methyl Ester (MAL)-Induced PpIX Production for Topical Photodynamic Therapy Without Increase in Pain or Erythema

Abstract

MNs are a promising tool for improving the efficiency of topical PDT by improving the cutaneous delivery of ALA and MAL, without increase in side effects.

The time-dependent accumulation of protoporphyrin IX fluorescence in nodular basal cell carcinoma following application of methyl aminolevulinate with an oxygen pressure injection device

“…3 and Fig. 4 In another recent study investigating PpIX fluorescence enhancement [34] the skin of 14 healthy volunteers was pre-treated with micro-needles prior to the application of 2%, 8%…”

Potential of microneedle-assisted micro-particle delivery by gene guns: a review

“…There are a number of clinical studies which show that MNs insertions into skin are painless, or the pain is undetectable. For example, Mikolajewska et al (2010) have used polymeric MN cones with needle height of 644 mm, base diameter of 217 mm tapering to tip diameter of 41 mm to progress the skin pre-treatment and report that the MNs insertion is a painless process. Previously, Haq et al (2009) have used several MN arrays with lengths of 180 and 280 mm and compared the pain responses of a number of subjects for these MNs with the pain responses from hypodermic needles.…”

Paediatricians’ opinions of microneedle-mediated monitoring: a key stage in the translation of microneedle technology from laboratory into clinical practice

“…Microneedle arrays (MN) include up to 20,000 tiny projections per cm 2 on a baseplate and can be fabricated using a range of materials including silicon [1][2][3][4][5], metals [6][7][8] and polymers [9][10][11][12] (Fig. 1).…”

“…MN are designed to achieve skin penetration, in the absence of pain or bleeding [3,[14][15][16][17]. Since the first paper presenting MN technology was published [1], MNs have been extensively investigated for their potential role in transdermal drug and vaccine delivery [7,10,18,19]. More recently, they have been considered as a blood or interstitial fluid (ISF) monitoring device [20][21][22][23][24].…”