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Abstract Conventional drug delivery methods often face challenges in terms of patient adherence and drug administration. Microneedles (MNs) patches have emerged as a promising alternative, offering a minimally invasive transdermal route for medications. However, their drug‐loading capacity remains limited, particularly for hydrophobic active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Herein, microneedles are designed based on eutectic solvent gels (eutectogels) as transdermal carriers for hydrophobic APIs. A natural deep eutectic solvent (NADES) is combined to enhance the solubility of the hydrophobic APIs within the GelMA/PEGDA matrix for mechanical strength and sustained release from the resulting eutectogels microneedles (EU‐MNs). Using docetaxel, 5‐fluorouracil, and curcumin as hydrophobic APIs models, the superior drug‐loading capacity of the EU‐MNs is demonstrated. In vitro experiments revealed that the EU‐MNs provided a sustained release of distinct hydrophobic APIs over 4 days. Additionally, by properly adjusting the concentration and type of APIs, these microneedle patches do not exhibit cytotoxic effects on fibroblasts cell line (NIH/3T3), underscoring their potential for safe and effective transdermal drug delivery. These findings highlight the potential of EU‐MNs as versatile, eco‐friendly transdermal vehicles for large amounts of hydrophobic APIs, leading to more effective treatments for these drugs.
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Digital automation of transdermal drug delivery with high spatiotemporal resolution
Abstract Transdermal drug delivery is of vital importance for medical treatments. However, user adherence to long-term repetitive drug delivery poses a grand challenge. Furthermore, the dynamic and unpredictable disease progression demands a pharmaceutical treatment that can be actively controlled in real-time to ensure medical precision and personalization. Here, we report a spatiotemporal on-demand patch (SOP) that integrates drug-loaded microneedles with biocompatible metallic membranes to enable electrically triggered active control of drug release. Precise control of drug release to targeted locations (<1 mm2), rapid drug release response to electrical triggers (<30 s), and multi-modal operation involving both drug release and electrical stimulation highlight the novelty. Solution-based fabrication ensures high customizability and scalability to tailor the SOP for various pharmaceutical needs. The wireless-powered and digital-controlled SOP demonstrates great promise in achieving full automation of drug delivery, improving user adherence while ensuring medical precision. Based on these characteristics, we utilized SOPs in sleep studies. We revealed that programmed release of exogenous melatonin from SOPs improve sleep of mice, indicating potential values for basic research and clinical treatments.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2139659
- PAR ID:
- 10485711
- Publisher / Repository:
- Nature Publishing Group
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Nature Communications
- Volume:
- 15
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2041-1723
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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