BME 281 Dr. Sun Margaret Franklin Microneedle Arrays BME 281 Dr. Sun Margaret Franklin

What are Microneedle Arrays? Small patches (less than a square inch) made up of small needles Deliver medicine to the skin rather than the muscle Better immune responses because the body encounters pathogens first on its surface

History First discovered in 1998 but become a much more common interest in recent years First made out of silicon Easy manufacturing process Any shape Any size

How It’s Made 4 types of microneedles Made from many different types of materials Plastic Metal Polymer Glass Ceramic

Layers of Skin Microneedle arrays are small and invasive Pass through the epidermis layer of the skin, but do not enter the dermis Doesn’t encounter the nerves, so no pain is present

How it Works Needles are dry- hard and sharp Injected into the skin- body fluids surround needles and make them swell The hard polymer that was on the inside turns into a soft material that keeps the skin open while the medicine is let out of the microneedle and into the body The soft microneedle is then painlessly removed

Simple and safe

Why is This Better? No pain The needles can never accidently stick another body Vaccines don’t need health clinics to administer the shot No disposable procedure needed Cost effective No temperature control Proper dosage Greater quantities

Future Microneedle capsules Allow for oral delivery of large molecules Made up of Drug reservoir pH-sensitive coating

References S. Kaushik, A.H. Hord, D.D. Denson, D.V. McAllister, S. Smitra, M.G. Allen, M.R. Prausnitz Lack of pain associated with microfabricated microneedles Anesth. Analg., 92 (2001), pp. 502–504 Hong, Xiaoyun, and Weien Yuan. "Hydrogel Microneedle Arrays for Transdermal Drug Delivery." Springer. N.p., 1 July 2014. Web. 20 Sept. 2015. Trafton, Anne. "New Drug-delivery Capsule May Replace Injections." MIT News. N.p., 1 Oct. 2014. Web. 20 Sept. 2015. Kim, Yeu-Chun, Jung-Hwan Park, and Mark R. Prausnitz. "Microneedles for Drug and Vaccine Delivery." Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews 64.14 (2012): 1547-568. Web