微针在经皮给药领域的研究

目的:阐述微针在经皮给药领域的研究。方法:简述并分析微针的特点、研究应用、存在的问题以及今后研究的重点。结果:作为一种新型的经皮给药技术,微针可能成为一种较为理想的经皮给药载体。结论:随着研究成果逐渐走入市场,微针将会带来良好的社会效益和经济效益。     

生物可降解微针的研究进展

微针给药是一种新型的经皮给药方式,可在皮肤上创造微米级的药物运输通道,增强皮肤对药物尤其是大分子药物的渗透性,且不会到达神经分布丰富的皮肤深层组织。生物可降解微针是以生物可降解材料为基质制作出的微针,除具有一般微针的优点,其具有的生物可降解特性解决了微针一旦断裂于皮肤内难以处理这一难题。因此生物可降解微针有望成为经皮给药的理想载体。本文对生物可降解微针的特点、制作方法、基质的选择、在经皮给药系统中的应用以及存在的问题等进行了概述。     

微针在儿童经皮递药中的研究进展

与传统的口服和肠外给药途径相比,经皮给药系统作为一种非侵入性替代方法非常有吸引力。特别对于儿童患者,它有助于克服该群体特有的问题,如吞咽困难、口服制剂的适口性以及与针头相关的恐惧和疼痛。然而,儿童的皮肤屏障功能有效地限制了药物的经皮吸收。微针可突破皮肤最外层的角质层,增加经皮给药的药量。过去几十年,以微针为基础药物输送系统的研究取得了显著进展。与微针相关的研究论文呈指数级激增。本文概括了微针的分类及特点,讨论了微针在儿童经皮递药中的研究进展,最后对微针介导的儿童经皮递药的未来前景进行了简要展望。     

微针经皮给药技术

微针是介于皮下注射和透皮贴剂之间的一种给药方式,利用在皮肤角质层产生的微小孔道来显著增加药物的经皮吸收。综述微针经皮给药技术的研究进展,介绍制造微针的材料和方法、微针的给药方式及其在经皮给药系统中的应用。     

微针的特点及其在黄褐斑治疗中的应用研究分析

黄褐斑是一种后天获得性色素沉着性疾病，困扰患者的工作和生活。外用经皮给药的主要挑战是药物透过角质层屏障的阻碍。微针作为物理促渗方法和新的递药系统，能够穿透角质层形成特定的药物输送通道，促进了药物的渗透，提高了药物的生物利用度。本文主要总结了微针的特点，并以黄褐斑为切入点，分析微针近年来在黄褐斑领域的应用研究，为后续黄褐斑微针产品的开发提供一定的参考。     

微针透皮给药系统应用研究进展

微针透皮给药系统是近年来透皮给药系统研究的热点。微针透皮给药系统具有注射给药和透皮给药的双重优势,具有快速、方便、无痛等众多优点,研究表明可以显著提高药物透皮速率和吸收量,特别是在蛋白质、多肽、DNA和RNA等大分子物质的透皮制剂研究领域表现出良好的效果和应用前景,本文对微针透皮给药系统应用研究的最新进展进行了综述。随着微针加工技术、载药技术和应用研究的不断深入,微针透皮技术在临床领域将会有更广泛的应用。     

空心微针透皮给药技术的研究进展

空心微针类似于微米级的注射针,具有注射给药和透皮给药的双重特点.作为一种新型的透皮给药技术,空心微针近年来在疫苗和胰岛素等生物大分子药物的递送方面显示出极大的潜力.笔者根据近年来国内外相关的研究报道,对空心微针的促透机制、常用制备材料及工艺和在透皮给药中的应用等进行归纳总结,以期为空心微针技术的研究和发展提供参考借鉴.     

微针技术的研究进展

微针以微机电系统(m icroelectro-mechani-cal systems,MEMS)技术为基础,在近年来发展迅速。本文主要介绍微针的制备方法,插入皮肤的机制,微针给药的特点以及微针的应用,详细介绍了微针在经皮给药中的应用。由于微针给药可以避免胃肠道对药物的降解作用和肝脏的首过效应等口服给药的缺点,并可消除注射给药时引起的疼痛,随着其发展不断完善,微针给药将会有广阔的应用前景。     

微针在口腔黏膜给药系统中的研究进展

口腔黏膜给药系统是近年来发展的一种新型给药系统,与传统的口服给药途径相比,可以避免胃肠道酶代谢、酸降解及肝脏首过作用,进而提高药物生物利用度,发挥局部或全身治疗和预防作用。但是口腔黏膜的物理屏障会限制药物的吸收,而微针可突破该障碍,改善药物的渗透。本文简述了口腔黏膜给药的优缺点,介绍了微针的分类及国内微针企业的发展情况,讨论了微针在口腔黏膜给药系统的研究进展,以期有更多新的口腔黏膜制剂推向市场。     

微针在经皮给药及经皮疫苗转运中的应用

作为一种高效、无痛、精确、便利的给药系统，微针可显著促进药物及疫苗的经皮转运，显示其在经皮给药领域的良好应用前景。     

Considerations in the use of microneedles: pain,convenience, anxiety and safety

Transdermal delivery using microneedles is gaining increasing attention from pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies as one of the promising drug delivery methods. Microneedle products have recently become available on the market, and some of them are under evaluation for efficacy and safety. To be available in the market for cosmetic and therapeutic use, several factors should be considered, including pain, anxiety, convenience and safety. These factors are summarized and reviewed in this article according to type of microneedle. Various kinds of materials have been used for manufacturing microneedles and developing drug formulations for microneedles. Safety information about materials used for microneedles is summarized in terms of type of microneedles. In addition to their biocompatibility, mechanical safety is also discussed. This review can provide guidelines for designing microneedle products for proper use.     

Fabrication of Dissolving Polymer Microneedles for Controlled Drug Encapsulation and Delivery: Bubble and Pedestal Microneedle Designs

Dissolving microneedle patches offer promise as a simple, minimally invasive method of drug and vaccine delivery to the skin that avoids the need for hypodermic needles. However, it can be difficult to control the amount and localization of drug within microneedles. In this study, we developed novel microneedle designs to improve control of drug encapsulation and delivery using dissolving microneedles by (i) localizing drug in the microneedle tip, (ii) increasing the amount of drug loaded in microneedles while minimizing wastage, and (iii) inserting microneedles more fully into the skin. Localization of our model drug, sulforhodamine B in the microneedle tip by either casting a highly concentrated polymer solution as the needle matrix or incorporating an air bubble at the base of the microneedle achieved approximately 80% delivery within 10 min compared to 20% delivery achieved by the microneedles encapsulating nonlocalized drug. As another approach, a pedestal was introduced to elevate each microneedle for more complete insertion into the skin and to increase its drug loading capacity by threefold from 0.018 to 0.053 μL per needle. Altogether, these novel microneedle designs provide a new set of tools to fabricate dissolving polymer microneedles with improved control over drug encapsulation, loading, and delivery.     

Microneedles: an emerging transdermal drug delivery system

Objectives One of the thrust areas in drug delivery research is transdermal drug delivery systems (TDDS) due to their characteristic advantages over oral and parenteral drug delivery systems. Researchers have focused their attention on the use of microneedles to overcome the barrier of the stratum corneum. Microneedles deliver the drug into the epidermis without disruption of nerve endings. Recent advances in the development of microneedles are discussed in this review for the benefit of young scientists and to promote research in the area. Key findings Microneedles are fabricated using a microelectromechanical system employing silicon, metals, polymers or polysaccharides. Solid coated microneedles can be used to pierce the superficial skin layer followed by delivery of the drug. Advances in microneedle research led to development of dissolvable/degradable and hollow microneedles to deliver drugs at a higher dose and to engineer drug release. Iontophoresis, sonophoresis and electrophoresis can be used to modify drug delivery when used in concern with hollow microneedles. Microneedles can be used to deliver macromolecules such as insulin, growth hormones, immunobiologicals, proteins and peptides. Microneedles containing ‘cosmeceuticals’ are currently available to treat acne, pigmentation, scars and wrinkles, as well as for skin tone improvement. Summary Literature survey and patents filled revealed that microneedle‐based drug delivery system can be explored as a potential tool for the delivery of a variety of macromolecules that are not effectively delivered by conventional transdermal techniques.     

Challenges and strategies in developing microneedle patches for transdermal delivery of protein and peptide therapeutics

The birth of microneedles, an array of needles sufficiently long to penetrate epidermis but small enough to do not cause skin injury and pain feeling, has offered a highly promising solution for non-invasive delivery of protein and peptide drugs, a long-cherished desire over eighty years. However, the attempts to develop clinically feasible microneedle transdermal delivery methods encountered series of difficulties, for which a decade research efforts have yet to result in a single product. Microneedles may be incorporated into devices as skin pre-treatment tools, skin microinjectors as well as transdermal patches by their functions in drug delivery. They may also be categorized to insoluble solid microneedles, hollow microneedles, soluble/degradable solid microneedles and phase-transition microneedles by their structure and forming materials. This review article is aimed to update the progress and discuss the technical challenges raised in developing protein/peptide loaded microneedle patches.     

Influence of the delivery systems using a microneedle array on the permeation of a hydrophilic molecule, calcein.

Despite the advantages of drug delivery through the skin, such as easy accessibility, convenience, prolonged therapy, avoidance of the liver first-pass metabolism and a large surface area, transdermal drug delivery is only used with a small subset of drugs because most compounds cannot cross the skin at therapeutically useful rates. Recently, a new concept was introduced known as microneedles and these could be pierced to effectively deliver drugs using micron-sized needles in a minimally invasive and painless manner. In this study, biocompatible polycarbonate (PC) microneedle arrays with various depths (200 and 500mum) and densities (45, 99 and 154ea/cm(2)) were fabricated using a micro-mechanical process. The skin permeability of a hydrophilic molecule, calcein (622.5D), was examined according to the delivery systems of microneedle, drug loading, depth of the PC microneedle, and density of the PC microneedle. The skin permeability of calcein was the highest when the calcein gel was applied to the skin with the 500mum-depth PC microneedle, simultaneously. In addition, the skin permeability of calcein was the highest when 0.1g of calcein gel was coupled to the 500mum-depth PC microneedle (154ea/cm(2)) as well as longer microneedles and larger density of microneedles. Taken together, this study suggests that a biocompatible PC microneedle might be a suitable tool for transdermal drug delivery system of hydrophilic molecules with the possible applications to macromolecules such as proteins and peptides.     

Microneedles and other physical methods for overcoming the stratum corneum barrier for cutaneous gene therapy

The outermost layer of skin, the epidermis, has developed formidable physical and immunological barrier properties that prevent infiltration of deleterious chemicals and pathogens. Consequently, transdermal delivery of medicaments is currently restricted to a limited number of low molecular weight drugs. As a corollary, there has been significant recent interest in providing strategies that disrupt or circumvent the principal physical barrier, the stratum corneum, for the efficient cutaneous delivery of macromolecular and nucleic acid based therapeutics. These strategies include: electrical methods, intradermal injection, follicular delivery, particle acceleration, laser ablation, radiofrequency ablation, microscission, and microneedles. The application of microfabricated microneedle arrays to skin creates transient pathways to enable transcutaneous delivery of drugs and macromolecules. Microneedle use is simple, pain-free, and causes no bleeding, with further advantages of convenient manufacture, distribution, and disposal. To date, microneedles have been shown to deliver drug, peptide, antigen, and DNA efficiently through skin. Robust and efficient microneedle designs and compositions can be inserted into the skin without fracture. Further progress in microneedle array design, microneedle application apparatus, and integrated formulation will confirm this methodology as a realistic clinical strategy for delivering a range of medicaments, including DNA, to and through skin.     

Microneedles for transdermal drug delivery

The success of transdermal drug delivery has been severely limited by the inability of most drugs to enter the skin at therapeutically useful rates. Recently, the use of micron-scale needles in increasing skin permeability has been proposed and shown to dramatically increase transdermal delivery, especially for macromolecules. Using the tools of the microelectronics industry, microneedles have been fabricated with a range of sizes, shapes and materials. Most drug delivery studies have emphasized solid microneedles, which have been shown to increase skin permeability to a broad range of molecules and nanoparticles in vitro. In vivo studies have demonstrated delivery of oligonucleotides, reduction of blood glucose level by insulin, and induction of immune responses from protein and DNA vaccines. For these studies, needle arrays have been used to pierce holes into skin to increase transport by diffusion or iontophoresis or as drug carriers that release drug into the skin from a microneedle surface coating. Hollow microneedles have also been developed and shown to microinject insulin to diabetic rats. To address practical applications of microneedles, the ratio of microneedle fracture force to skin insertion force (i.e. margin of safety) was found to be optimal for needles with small tip radius and large wall thickness. Microneedles inserted into the skin of human subjects were reported as painless. Together, these results suggest that microneedles represent a promising technology to deliver therapeutic compounds into the skin for a range of possible applications.     

Microneedles and transdermal applications

With the limitations of oral drug delivery and the pain and needle phobias associated with traditional injections, drug delivery research has focused on the transdermal delivery route. A formidable barrier to transdermal drug delivery is the stratum corneum, the superficial layer of the skin. In the last 10 years, microneedles were proposed as a mechanical tool to pierce through the stratum corneum, in order to create drug delivery channels without stimulating underlying pain nerves. Since then, the field of microneedles has rapidly evolved to spawn a plethora of potential transdermal applications. In this review, the authors provide an overview of the progress in microneedle research and design, and the advancements that have been made in employing this technology for transdermal applications.