Visscher Maira, Frijlink Henderik W, Hinrichs Wouter L J
Department of Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmacy, University of Groningen, 9713 AV Groningen, The Netherlands.
Pharmaceutics. 2025 Jan 17;17(1):124. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics17010124.
The application of dissolving microneedle arrays (DMNAs) is an emerging trend in drug and vaccine delivery as an alternative for hypodermic needles or other less convenient drug administration methods. The major benefits include, amongst others, that no trained healthcare personnel is required and that the recipient experiences hardly any pain during administration. However, for a successful drug or vaccine delivery from the DMNA, the microneedles should be inserted intact into the skin. A successful penetration into the upper skin layers may be challenging because of the elastic nature of the skin; therefore, a minimum insertion force is required to overcome the total resistance force of the skin. In addition, the microneedles need to stay intact, which requires a certain mechanical strength, and be able to resist the required insertion force. In addition to the type of material with which the DMNAs are produced, the geometry of the DMNAs will also have a profound effect, not only on the mechanical strength but also on the number of insertions and penetration depth into the skin. In this review, the effects of shape, aspect ratio, length, width of the base, tip diameter and angle, and spacing of DMNAs on the aforementioned effect parameters were evaluated to answer the following question: 'What is the optimal geometry of dissolving microneedle arrays?'.
溶解微针阵列（DMNAs）的应用是药物和疫苗递送领域的一个新兴趋势，可作为皮下注射针或其他不太方便的给药方法的替代方案。其主要优点包括，除其他外，无需训练有素的医护人员，且接受者在给药过程中几乎不会感到疼痛。然而，为了通过DMNA成功递送药物或疫苗，微针应完整地插入皮肤。由于皮肤的弹性，成功穿透皮肤上层可能具有挑战性；因此，需要最小插入力来克服皮肤的总阻力。此外，微针需要保持完整，这需要一定的机械强度，并能够抵抗所需的插入力。除了生产DMNAs的材料类型外，DMNAs的几何形状也将产生深远影响，不仅对机械强度，而且对插入次数和皮肤穿透深度都有影响。在这篇综述中，评估了DMNAs的形状、长宽比、长度、基部宽度、尖端直径和角度以及间距对上述效应参数的影响，以回答以下问题：“溶解微针阵列的最佳几何形状是什么？”
