Eye diseases and injuries impose a significant clinical problem worldwide. Safe and effective ocular drug delivery is, however, challenging due to the presence of ocular barriers. Here we report a strategy using an eye patch equipped with an array of detachable microneedles. These microneedles can penetrate the ocular surface tissue, and serve as implanted micro-reservoirs for controlled drug delivery. The biphasic drug release kinetics enabled by the double-layered micro-reservoirs largely enhances therapeutic efficacy. Using corneal neovascularization as the disease model, we show that delivery of an anti-angiogenic monoclonal antibody (DC101) by such eye patch produces ~90% reduction of neovascular area. Furthermore, quick release of an anti-inflammatory compound (diclofenac) followed by a sustained release of DC101 provides synergistic therapeutic outcome. The eye patch application is easy and minimally invasive to ensure good patient compliance. Such intraocular drug delivery strategy promises effective home-based treatment of many eye diseases.

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Subcutaneous fungal infection is often difficult to be treated by the conventional topical application or oral intake of antifungal agents because of low drug bioavailability to the infection site, lack of sustained therapeutic effect, and development of drug resistance. Here, we report a new strategy using polymeric microneedle (MN) patch to overcome the skin barrier.MN is made of biocompatible and biodegradable chitosan-polyethylenimine copolymer which possesses antimicrobial property immune to drug resistance and allows sustained drug release.Using a fungal infection mouse model, we demonstrate that MN patches encapsulated with antifungal agent amphotericin B offer outstanding treatment effectiveness, which is attributable to the high bioavailability of therapeutics and synergistic actions of antifungal polymer and drug.

Obesity is a serious epidemic health problem that can cause many other diseases including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Current approaches to combat obesity suffer from low effectiveness and adverse side effects. Here, we developed a new self-administrable and minimally-invasive transdermal drug delivery strategy for home-based long-term treatment of obesity and other diseases. Specifically, ultrathin, core-shelled, and lance-shaped polymeric drug-reservoirs (micro-lances -MLs) were readily fabricated by a thermal pressing molding method and totally implanted into subcutaneous fat by lancing through the skin. Using a diet-induced obese mouse model, we show that development of obesity and associated metabolic disorders is effectively inhibited by applying therapeutic core-shelled MLs once every 2 weeks. The outstanding therapeutic effects are attributable to highly