Recent Progress in Microneedles‐Mediated Diagnosis, Therapy, and Theranostic Systems

Abstract

Theranostic system combined diagnostic and therapeutic modalities is critical for the real-time monitoring of disease-related biomarkers and personalized therapy. Microneedles, as a multifunctional platform, are promising for transdermal diagnostics and drug delivery. They have shown attractive properties including painless skin penetration, easy self-administration, prominent therapeutic effects, and good biosafety. Herein, an overview of the microneedles-based diagnosis, therapies, and theranostic systems is given. Four microneedles-based detection methods are concluded based on the sensing mechanism: i) electrochemistry, ii) fluorometric, iii) colorimetric, and iv) Raman methods. Additionally, robust microneedles are suitable for implantable drug delivery. Microneedles-assisted transdermal drug delivery can be primarily classified as passive, active, and responsive drug release, based on the release mechanisms. Microneedles-assisted oral and implantable drug delivery mechanisms are also presented in this review. Furthermore, the key frontier developments in microneedles-mediated theranostic systems as the major selling points are emphasized in this review. These systems are classified into open-loop and closed-loop theranostic systems based on the indirectness and directness of feedback between the transdermal diagnosis and therapy, respectively. Finally, conclusions and future perspectives for next-generation microneedles-mediated theranostic systems are also discussed. Taken together, microneedle-based systems are promising as the new avenue for diagnosis, therapy, and disease-specific closed-loop theranostic applications.

3D‐Printed Microinjection Needle Arrays via a Hybrid DLP‐Direct Laser Writing Strategy

“…Microinjection technologies underlie a diversity of biomedical applications, such as in vitro fertilization, intraocular injection, therapeutic drug and vaccine delivery, developmental biology, and transgenics. [1][2][3][4] Historically, microinjection protocols have relied on using a single hollow microneedle to deliver target substances (e.g., cells, DNA, RNA, micro/nanoparticles) to a singular location of interest. [5][6][7] Recently, however, alternatives in the form of microneedle arrays (MNAs) have garnered increasing interest due to a wide range of benefits over their single-needle counterparts, including the ability to rapidly deliver target material over a large, distributed area, which has proven to be particularly beneficial for transdermal and intradermal drug delivery.…”

Microneedles for in situ tissue regeneration

“…And MNs can also extract tissue interstitial fluid to obtain disease-related biomarkers [ [29] , [30] , [31] ]. As a result, MNs have been widely used to treat and detect various diseases, including skin cancer, infections, diabetes, obesity, and ocular diseases [ [32] , [33] , [34] , [35] , [36] , [37] , [38] ]. In the field of regenerative medicine, there are two main application pathways of MNs.…”

Revealing drug release and diffusion behavior in skin interstitial fluid by surface-enhanced Raman scattering microneedles

“…Microneedles (MNs) are a novel transdermal drug delivery system, which typically load therapeutic drugs within an array of polymeric needles with a length of 10–2000 μm. 1 They can penetrate the stratum corneum and create microporous channels to release drugs into the dermal interstitial fluid (ISF) without damaging nerves or capillaries, and have attracted increasing attention for their painless, easy self-administration, and prominent therapeutic effects. 2,3 MNs have become an emerging technology in cutting-edge biomedical fields, especially in therapy 4–6 and biomarker detection.…”