A painless, organic and bioavailable drug delivery badge may soon be on the horizon for home healthcare patients.
Researchers from Tohoku University have developed a biobattery-powered device that is capable of both delivering large molecular sores over the skin barrier and extracting interstitial fluid for diagnostic purposes.
They published the approach online on January 28 in Nature Communication.
The team, led by corresponding author Matsuhiko Nishizawa, a professor in the Department of Finemechanics in the Graduate School of Engineering at Tohoku University, developed a microneedle series smaller than pink nails. The porous microneedles, acting as interconnecting agents for injecting or extracting liquids, contain large molecules of vaccines or even insulin.
That’s a step further than the packages already traded for the distribution of small-molecule drugs used for postoperative pain relief or migraine treatments, Nishizawa said, without increasing needle size.
The porous microneedles are 250 microns long, about three and a half human hairs – deep enough to penetrate painlessly into the longest part of the skin without being long enough to penetrate. affecting blood vessels or nerves.
When a low-level voltage is applied to the series of porous microneedles covered with hydrogel, a liquid flow is created as when a syringe plunger is used. With so-called electroosmotic flow, it can determine the rate of drug release over the skin barrier or the rate of interstitial fluid extraction for things like glucose levels.
This research is the first evidence that the electroosmotic current generated by a porous microneedle layer accelerates the transdermal entry of drug molecules and produces interstitial fluid. “
Matsuhiko Nishizawa, Corresponding Author and Professor Study, Department of Finemechanics, Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tohoku
The researchers powered the field with biobattery. Four electrodes are connected to the battery and convert chemical energy, taken from an enzyme that processes sugar and atmospheric oxygen, into electrical energy. The biobattery and porous microneedle layer is secured to the skin with a smaller adhesive patch than an industrial card.
The researchers are now developing a porous microneedle array with a bioavailable polymer.
“The successful demonstration presented here using built-in biobattery confirms the future potential of fully organic skin care based on electroosmosis flow that is safe and truly disposable,” Nishizawa said.
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Magazine Reference:
Kusama, S., et al. (2021) Transdermal electroosmotic current generated by porous patch microneedle array. Nature Communication. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-20948-4.