School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 311 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA.
Drug Deliv Transl Res. 2018 Oct;8(5):1043-1052. doi: 10.1007/s13346-018-0549-x.
Microneedle (MN) patches provide a simple method for delivery of drugs that might otherwise require hypodermic injection. Conventional MN patch fabrication methods typically can load only one or possibly multiple miscible agents with the same formulation on all MNs, which limits the combination and spatial distribution of drugs and formulations having different properties (such as solubility) in a single patch. In this study, we coated MNs individually instead of coating all MNs from the same formulation, making possible a patch where each individual MN is coated with different formulations and drugs. In this way, individually coated MN patches co-delivered multiple agents with different physicochemical characteristics (immiscible molecules, proteins, and nanoparticles) and in different spatial patterns in the skin. MN loading was adjusted by modifying the number of coating layers, and co-delivery of multiple agents was demonstrated in the porcine skin. We conclude that individually coating MNs enables co-delivery of multiple different compounds and formulations with needle-by-needle spatial control in the skin.
微针（MN）贴片为药物传递提供了一种简单的方法，而这些药物如果通过皮下注射的话可能会比较困难。传统的 MN 贴片制造方法通常只能在所有 MN 上加载一种或可能多种具有相同配方的混合药物，这限制了在单个贴片中有不同性质（如溶解度）的药物和配方的组合和空间分布。在这项研究中，我们对 MN 进行了单独涂层，而不是对同一配方的所有 MN 进行涂层，从而制造出一种每个 MN 都涂有不同配方和药物的贴片。通过这种方式，单独涂层的 MN 贴片以不同的空间模式共同递送至具有不同物理化学特性（不混溶的分子、蛋白质和纳米颗粒）的多种药物。MN 的加载量可以通过调整涂层的数量来调节，并且在猪皮上证明了多种药物的共同递送。我们得出结论，单独涂层的 MN 贴片可以在皮肤中以针到针的空间控制方式共同递送至多种不同的化合物和配方。
