Micro and Nanoneedles for Drug Delivery and Biosensing

Abstract

Delivering therapeutics in a painless manner is one of the many objectives for the treatment of clinical conditions. Micro and nanoneedles are small-scale devices that can help overcome the resistance encountered during drug diffusion by creating conduits of small dimensions through biomembranes. Microneedles for drug delivery applications were manually produced until the 1990s and after this the high precision technology from the semiconductor industry was adopted for their production [ 1 ]. Over the last decade or so, microneedles for transdermal applications have been widely studied. Currently, microneedle patches, mainly based on hyaluronates, are available over the counter for cosmetic applications. On the other hand, nanoneedles are used in atomic force microscopy, which has been explored for drug delivery and biosensing over the last two decades [ 2 , 3 ]. Micro and nanoneedle-based biosensing also poses potential for environment-responsive drug delivery. In this article, the current research, clinical studies and future perspectives of micro and nanoneedle-based systems are discussed for drug delivery and biosensing applications.

Oleic Acid Nanovesicles of Minoxidil for Enhanced Follicular Delivery

“…[ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ]. A number of other drug delivery systems which vary in structure and compositions, such as niosomes [ 12 ], penetration-enhancing vesicles [ 4 , 13 ], foams [ 14 , 15 ], lipid nanocarriers [ 16 , 17 , 18 ], microbubbles [ 19 ], microneedles [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ], inclusion complexes [ 2 , 24 , 25 ], lecithin microparticles [ 26 ], and effervescent formulations [ 27 ], have been developed to enhance the skin permeation of drugs including MXD. However, the limitations mentioned earlier have not yet been addressed.…”

“…OAVs have been used in studies as a carrier for a number of drugs via topical administration; however, none explored their potential for follicular drug delivery [ 32 , 33 ]. Ufasomes have been known to overcome the skin barrier, probably via lipid exchange between the SC layer and lipid carriers [ 23 ]. After penetrating through the SC into the dermis, they get washed out through the fusion of fatty acid in sebum around the hair shaft.…”

Micro‐/Nanopillars for Micro‐ and Nanotechnologies Using Inductively Coupled Plasmas

“…Thus, this approach plays an essential role in the particular design for the manufacturing of the nanoneedles. Further research can be forthcoming for the fabrication of nanoneedles where the combination of anisotropic and isotropic is essential for optimal functioning …”

“…Further research can be forthcoming for the fabrication of nanoneedles where the combination of anisotropic and isotropic is essential for optimal functioning. [39][40][41][42][43] In an SF 6 /C 4 F 8 mixture chemistry plasma, the etched profile is easily controlled just by changing the flow rate of one of these www.advancedsciencenews.com www.pss-a.com gases. In reality, the nanopillars with high aspect ratio often collapse due to chemical plasma etching.…”

Direct Fabrication of sub 100 nm Nanoneedles in Silver using Femtosecond Laser Direct Writing

“…Metal nanostructures with needles/needle-like sharp structures are of major interest in drug delivery applications, probing biological cells, controlled delivery of nucleic acids to selected tissues and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) studies [1][2][3][4] . These applications are attributed to the special mechanical characteristics like high aspect ratio, electrical and optical properties of nanoneedles.…”