Devin V. McAllister, Ping M. Wang, Shawn P. Davis, Jung-Hwan Park, Paul J. Canatella, Mark G. Allen, and Mark R. Prausnitz.  Microfabricated needles for transdermal delivery of macromolecules and nanoparticles: Fabrication methods and transport studies.  PNAS published November 17, 2003, 10.1073/pnas.2331316100 ( Engineering )

Microfabricated microneedles for gene and drug delivery. DV McAllister, MG Allen and MR Prausnitz. Annu. Rev. Biomed. Eng. 2:289-313 (2000)

Description:

Using techniques adapted from the microelectronics industry, microfabrication has allowed the creation of microneedles.  Microfabrication techniques have been developed for silicon, metal, and biodegradable polymer microneedle arrays having solid and hollow bores with tapered and beveled tips and feature sizes from 1 to 1,000 µm.  Arrays of micrometer-scale needles could be used to deliver drugs, proteins, and nanoparticles across skin in a minimally invasive manner. Dense arrays of microneedles have been used to deliver DNA into cells. Many cells are treated at once, which is much more efficient than current microinjection techniques. Microneedles have also been used to deliver drugs into local regions of tissue. Microfabricated neural probes have delivered drugs into neural tissue while similtaneously stimulating and recording neuronal activity and microneedles have been inserted into arterial vessel walls to deliver anti-restenosis drugs. Finally, microhypodermic needles and microneedles for transdermal drug delivery have been developed to reduce needle insertion pain and tissue trauma and to provide controlled delivery across the skin. These needles have been shown to be robust enough to penetrate skin and dramatically increase skin permeability to macromolecules and particles up to 50nm in radius.

 

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