Department of Pharmaceutics, UCL School of Pharmacy, University College London, 29-39 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AX, UK.
Departamento de Farmacología, Farmacia y Tecnología Farmacéutica, I+D Farma (GI-1645), Facultad de Farmacia, and Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela (IDIS), Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Int J Pharm. 2021 Nov 20;609:121199. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2021.121199. Epub 2021 Oct 18.
3D printing is a manufacturing technique that is transforming numerous industrial sectors, particularly where it is key tool in the development and fabrication of medicinees that are personalised to the individual needs of patients. Most 3D printers are relatively large, require trained operators and must be located in a pharmaceutical setting to manufacture dosage forms. In order to realise fully the potential of point-of-care manufacturing of medicines, portable printers that are easy to operate are required. Here, we report the development of a 3D printer that operates using a mobile smartphone. The printer, operating on stereolithographic principles, uses the light from the smartphone's screen to photopolymerise liquid resins and create solid structures. The shape of the printed dosage form is determined using a custom app on the smartphone. Warfarin-loaded Printlets (3D printed tablets) of various sizes and patient-centred shapes (caplet, triangle, diamond, square, pentagon, torus, and gyroid lattices) were successfully printed to a high resolution and with excellent dimensional precision using different photosensitive resins. The drug was present in an amorphous form, and the Printlets displayed sustained release characterises. The promising proof-of-concept results support the future potential of this compact, user-friendly and interconnected smartphone-based system for point-of-care manufacturing of personalised medications.
3D 打印是一种制造技术，正在改变众多工业领域，特别是在开发和制造针对患者个体需求的个性化医学方面，它是一个关键工具。大多数 3D 打印机体积较大，需要经过培训的操作人员，并且必须位于制药环境中才能制造剂型。为了充分实现即时制造药品的潜力，需要易于操作的便携式打印机。在这里，我们报告了一种使用移动智能手机操作的 3D 打印机的开发。该打印机采用立体光固化原理，利用智能手机屏幕的光线使液态树脂光聚合，从而形成固体结构。打印剂型的形状由智能手机上的自定义应用程序确定。使用不同的光敏树脂成功地打印出各种尺寸和以患者为中心的形状（胶囊、三角形、钻石形、方形、五边形、环形、胞状和豆荚状格子）的华法林负载 Printlets（3D 打印片剂），具有较高的分辨率和出色的尺寸精度。药物以无定形形式存在，Printlets 显示出持续释放的特点。有前景的概念验证结果支持未来使用这种紧凑、用户友好和互联的基于智能手机的系统即时制造个性化药物的潜力。
