Mini-Review: Assessing the Potential Impact of Microneedle Technologies on Home Healthcare Applications

Abstract

The increasing devolution of healthcare towards community care has meant that the management of many conditions is conducted within the home either by community nurses or by the patients themselves. The administration of medicines within home healthcare scenarios can however be problematic—especially when considering the delivery of medicines through injection. The possibility of needlestick injury (NSI) has become an ever-present hazard within healthcare settings, with a significant proportion of percutaneous injuries occurring during the handling and disposal of the needle. The emergence of transdermal microneedle systems, however, offers a potentially revolutionary advance and could dramatically improve safety—particularly within home healthcare where there are mounting concerns over the use and disposal of sharps. A mini-review of the advantages proffered by microneedle drug delivery technologies is presented and the potential impact on delivery of medicines within the home is critically appraised.

Control of Klebsiella pneumoniae Infection in Mice by Using Dissolving Microarray Patches Containing Gentamicin

“…MNs offer the possibility for GEN delivery by less-experienced personnel and easier logistics for supplying to remote areas (16). As MNs dissolve upon insertion in the skin, they eliminate the requirement for sharps disposal and avoid transmission of blood-borne infections through needlestick injuries (17). Our previous work has demonstrated the successful transdermal delivery of therapeutically relevant concentrations of GEN using dissolving MNs in an in vivo model (7).…”

Ethical Considerations of Wearable Technologies in Human Research

“…Although reports show that recovery of skin barrier function can be as fast as a few hours after micropore creation, [ 45 ] the application of wearable transdermal device introduces additional risks of infections as unclosed microchannels may promote microcirculation of bacteria. [ 46 ] Standard operation protocols that ensure the implementation of good clinical practice prior to the application of microneedle patches are essential in minimizing the influx of exogenous microbiomes from surroundings. Confounding factors such as random movements, natural variations in skin texture, manual application pressure may introduce additional compression or shear stress that could potentially result in the failure and fracture of hollow microneedles.…”

Bio-Functional Textiles: Combining Pharmaceutical Nanocarriers with Fibrous Materials for Innovative Dermatological Therapies

“…The application of low electric current is defined as iontophoresis [100] while the application of ultrasounds (US) is called sonophoresis [101]. Another physical enhancement technology is the Microneedles (MN) one; this technology employs micrometric size needles to pierce the epidermis and deliver the drug directly in the vascularized layers [102,103]. Chemical enhancement instead consists of adjusting the drug formulation by adding appropriate chemical substances that cause the swelling of skin barrier [104].…”

“…In the work of Pereira [123] adapalene (logP = 8.5) loaded PCL nanocapsules were produced and topically applied: the high hydrophobicity of both carrier and drug facilitated diffusion in the SC but no further penetration was observed, making the system suitable for topical administration. Marto et al [70,71,72,73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88,89,90,91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98,99,100,101,102,103,104,105,106,107,108,109,110,111,112,113,114,115,116,117,118,119,120,121,122,123,124] incorporated an anti-inflammatory drug in starch-shelled nanoparticles by emulsion solvent evaporation method. The potential effectiveness of such topical formulation was evaluated both in vitro and in vivo on ra...…”