The skin is an attractive route for drug delivery because it allows drugs to reach directly where they are needed, and may be useful in wound healing, pain relief, or other medical and cosmetic applications. It is difficult to deliver drugs through the skin because the thick outer layer impedes the passage of most small molecules.
In hopes of facilitating the delivery of drugs through the skin, MIT researchers have developed a wearable patch that applies painless ultrasound waves to the skin, creating tiny channels through which drugs can pass. The approach could help deliver treatments for a variety of skin conditions, and could be adapted to deliver hormones, muscle relaxants, and other drugs, researchers say.
“The ease of use and high degree of reproducibility offered by this system offers a breakthrough alternative for patients and consumers suffering from skin conditions and premature aging of the skin. delivers less systemic toxicity, is more localized, more comfortable, and more controllable.”
Chia-Chen Yu and Aastha Shah, research assistants at MIT, are the lead authors of the paper, which was published in Advanced as part of the journal’s “Rising Stars” series highlighting the outstanding work of researchers in the early stages of their independent careers. Published in Materials. Other his MIT authors include research assistant Colin Marcus and postdoc his Md Osman Goninaim. His Nikta Amiri, Amit Kumar Bhayadia and Amin Karami from the University of Buffalo are also authors of the paper.
sonic boost
Researchers started this project as an investigation of alternative methods for drug delivery. Most drugs are delivered orally or intravenously, but the skin is a route that can provide more targeted drug delivery for certain applications.
“The main advantage of the skin is that it can bypass the entire gastrointestinal tract. With oral administration, much higher doses must be administered to compensate for losses in the gastric system,” says Shah. It’s a more targeted and more focused modality of drug delivery.”
Ultrasound exposure has been shown to increase skin permeability to small-molecule drugs, but most of the existing techniques to perform this type of drug delivery require bulky equipment. A team at MIT wanted to figure out how to do this kind of transdermal drug delivery with a lightweight, wearable patch. This can make it easier to use in various applications.
The device they designed consists of a patch embedded with several disk-shaped piezoelectric transducers that can convert electrical current into mechanical energy. Each disc is embedded in a polymer cavity containing drug molecules dissolved in a liquid solution. When an electric current is applied to the piezoelectric element, pressure waves are generated in the liquid, creating a bursting bubble against the skin. These bursting bubbles create microjets of fluid that can penetrate the skin’s tough outer layer, the stratum corneum.
“This paves the way for using vibration to enhance drug delivery. There are several parameters that produce different kinds of waveform patterns. We can improve on both aspects,” says Karami.
The patch is made of PDMS, a silicone-based polymer that can adhere to the skin without tape. In this study, researchers tested the device by delivering a B vitamin called niacinamide, which is an ingredient in many sunscreens and moisturizers.
A test using pig skin showed that when an ultrasound patch was used to deliver niacinamide, the amount of drug that penetrated the skin was 26 times the amount that could pass through the skin without the aid of ultrasound. was shown.
The researchers also compared the results of the new device with microneedles. Microneedling, a technique sometimes used for transdermal drug delivery, involves puncturing the skin with tiny needles. The researchers found that their patch could deliver the same amount of niacinamide in 30 minutes as microneedles could deliver in 6 hours.
local delivery
In the current version of the device, drugs can penetrate several millimeters into the skin, so this approach could be useful for drugs that act locally within the skin. These may include niacinamide or vitamin C, used to treat age spots and other dark spots on the skin, or topical medications used to heal burns.
With further modifications to increase penetration depth, this technique can also be used for drugs that need to reach the bloodstream, such as caffeine, fentanyl, and lidocaine. Dougdeviren also envisions that this kind of patch could help deliver hormones such as progesterone. We are exploring the possibility of delivering therapeutic drugs.
The researchers are also working to further optimize the wearable patch in hopes of testing it on human volunteers soon. I plan to repeat it with
“After characterizing the drug penetration profiles of much larger drugs, we will see which candidates, such as hormones and insulin, can be delivered using this technology, and are now painless for those who need to inject themselves.” It provides an alternative to every day,” says Shah.
Original: Wearable patches can painlessly deliver drugs through the skin
Than: Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab | University of Buffalo
