School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Innovative Drug Research Centre, Chongqing University, Chongqing 401331, China.
Lab Chip. 2017 Apr 11;17(8):1373-1387. doi: 10.1039/c7lc00016b.
Microneedles are an efficient and minimally invasive approach to transdermal drug delivery and extraction of skin interstitial fluid. Compared to solid microneedles made of silicon, metals and ceramics, polymeric microneedles have attracted extensive attention due to their excellent biocompatibility, biodegradability and nontoxicity. They are easy to fabricate in large scale and can load drugs in high amounts. More importantly, polymers with different degradation profiles, swelling properties, and responses to biological/physical stimuli can be employed to fabricate polymeric microneedles with different mechanical properties and performance. This review provides a guideline for the selection of polymers and the corresponding fabrication methods for polymeric microneedles while summarizing their recent application in drug delivery and fluid extraction. It should be noted that although polymeric microneedles can achieve efficient transdermal delivery of drugs, their wide applications were limited by their unsatisfactory transdermal therapeutic efficiency. Delivery of nanomedicines that incorporate drugs into functional nanoparticles/capsules can address this problem and thus may be an interesting direction in the future.
微针是一种高效、微创的经皮给药和提取皮肤间质液的方法。与硅、金属和陶瓷等制成的实心微针相比，由于具有优异的生物相容性、可生物降解性和无毒性，聚合物微针引起了广泛的关注。它们易于大规模制造，可以大量装载药物。更重要的是，可以使用具有不同降解特性、溶胀性能以及对生物/物理刺激响应的聚合物来制造具有不同机械性能和性能的聚合物微针。本综述为聚合物的选择和聚合物微针的相应制造方法提供了指导，同时总结了它们在药物传递和流体提取中的最新应用。需要注意的是，尽管聚合物微针可以实现药物的高效经皮传递，但由于经皮治疗效率不理想，其广泛应用受到限制。将药物纳入功能纳米颗粒/胶囊的纳米药物的递送可以解决这个问题，因此可能是未来一个有趣的方向。
