Solid and hollow metallic glass microneedles for transdermal drug-delivery

Abstract

Metallic microneedles are attractive for painless transdermal drug-delivery. However, fabrication techniques for metal microneedles are often complex and multi-step. In this study, a scalable manufacturing of metallic microneedle arrays is presented using thermoplastic drawing of metallic glasses. Microneedles with tunable lengths and tips are produced by controlling the rheology and fracture of metallic glass. The same drawing process can generate solid and hollow microneedles simply by varying the thickness of metallic glass. The mechanism of thickness dependent transition from solid to hollow profiles is described by the viscous buckling of metallic liquid. In vitro skin insertion tests demonstrate that both solid and hollow metallic glass microneedles can pierce porcine skin and deliver model drugs.

Application of microneedle patches for drug delivery; doorstep to novel therapies

“…As MNs create micro-sized channels in the epidermis layer, the type, shape, size, density, and length of needles should be carefully considered. 46 The close association between MN geometry and effective insertion has been shown that an increase in insertion depth of needle affects both deflections of the skin. Under these circumstances, maximum force is applied to the needle insertion due to reducing the shear forces.…”

“… 51 Additionally, coated-MNs support various drug delivery possibilities in the one-treatment procedure of each needle in different drug solutions. 1 Previously, Hu et al 46 constructed a metallic glass solid MN by thermoplastic drawing technique. The needles were dip-coated in red-colored drug solution to examine in vitro drug delivery potential on porcine cutaneous tissue.…”

Flexible polymeric patch based nanotherapeutics against non-cancer therapy

“…MNs can be categorized into several types according to the mechanism of drug delivery [ 52 ], such as solid [ [59] , [60] , [61] ], hollow [ 61 , 62 ], coated [ [63] , [64] , [65] ], dissolving and hydrogel types. Usually, MNs are employed as a preprocessed stratagem, which could produce microchannels to improve drug diffusion through inserting and withdrawing the MNs on the skin.…”

Green Fabrication and Release Mechanisms of pH-Sensitive Chitosan–Ibuprofen Aerogels for Controlled Transdermal Delivery of Ibuprofen

“…In recent years, researchers found that the transdermal drug delivery system can provide long-term and sustained drug delivery, and it is a promising drug delivery system in the treatment of these chronic diseases ( Choudhary and Singh, 2021 ; Bose et al, 2021 ; Anantrao et al, 2021 ; Hanumanaik* et al, 2012 ). The transdermal drug delivery system works very simply, and it has become an important field due to its self-advantages such as avoidance of first-pass metabolism, stable and controlled blood level, ease of termination of drug action, long duration of actions, and no interference with gastric and intestinal fluid ( Chu et al, 2020 ; Fukuta et al, 2020 ; Hu et al, 2020 ; Sabri et al, 2020 ; Yang et al, 2020 ).…”