Wallace Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
J Control Release. 2011 Feb 10;149(3):242-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2010.10.033. Epub 2010 Nov 1.
Hypodermic needles cause pain and bleeding, produce biohazardous sharp waste and require trained personnel. To address these issues, we introduce separable arrowhead microneedles that rapidly and painlessly deliver drugs and vaccines to the skin. These needles are featured by micron-size sharp tips mounted on blunt shafts. Upon insertion in the skin, the sharp-tipped polymer arrowheads encapsulating drug separate from their metal shafts and remain embedded in the skin for subsequent dissolution and drug release. The blunt metal shafts can then be discarded. Due to rapid separation of the arrowhead tips from the shafts within seconds, administration using arrowhead microneedles can be carried out rapidly, while drug release kinetics can be independently controlled based on separable arrowhead formulation. Thus, drug and vaccine delivery using arrowhead microneedles are designed to offer a quick, convenient, safe and potentially self-administered method of drug delivery as an alternative to hypodermic needles.
皮下注射针会造成疼痛和出血，产生生物危害锐器废物，并且需要经过专门培训的人员操作。为了解决这些问题，我们引入了可分离的箭头状微针，它可以快速无痛地将药物和疫苗递送至皮肤。这些针的特点是带有微米级锋利尖端的针安装在钝的针杆上。插入皮肤后，封装药物的锋利聚合物箭头尖端会与金属针杆分离，并留在皮肤中，随后溶解并释放药物。然后可以丢弃钝的金属针杆。由于箭头尖端在几秒钟内迅速与针杆分离，因此使用箭头状微针进行给药可以快速进行，同时可以根据可分离的箭头状制剂独立控制药物释放动力学。因此，使用箭头状微针进行药物和疫苗输送旨在提供一种快速、方便、安全且潜在的自我给药方法，作为皮下注射针的替代品。
