Design and Fabrication of Self-separated Chitosan Microneedles Patch
摘要
Microneedles (MNs), as a microscale physical enhancement technique, significantly broaden the range of medications suitable for transdermal and intradermal administration, showcasing their potential to revolutionize drug delivery. Enabling self-administration, causing no discomfort, improving patient compliance, getting rid of biohazardous sharps disposal, and lowering the chance of needlestick injuries are some of their standout benefits. Nevertheless, recent findings have shown that partial insertion brought on by the skin's elastic and stiff characteristics significantly reduces the effectiveness of microneedles in delivering biopharmaceuticals, highlighting penetration efficiency as one of the most important characteristics because it determines the amount of drug to be delivered. Therefore, Separable arrowhead microneedles were created in order to get around the microneedles patches’ insertion restrictions. This study presents a fabrication method for Separable arrowhead microneedles using replica molding, employing a CNC master mold to create a negative mold from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The MNs patch with a ten-by-ten array composes chitosan arrowhead and 3D-printing support part. The arrowhead is designed as a conical shape with a base diameter of 400 µm and a height of 600 µm. The separation abilities, mechanical strength, and penetration efficiency of the chitosan MNs patch are evaluated. This rapid separation of arrowhead tips from the supports allows for swift administration, while drug release kinetics can be controlled separately based on arrowhead formulation.