Sustained antigens delivery using composite microneedles for effective epicutaneous immunotherapy

Therapeutic synthetic and natural materials for immunoengineering

“…Finally, more advanced materials science strategies can further improve the therapeutic efficacy and clinical utility of microneedle-based therapies. A recent example by Zhang et al 379 reported implantable microneedles with dissolvable components of silk fibroin hydrogel and polyvinyl alcohol, which can offer prolonged antigen exposure to improve clinical outcomes in food allergy. Many other attempts have been made at microneedle-based immunotherapy and are reviewed in-depth elsewhere.…”

Allergen immunotherapy in China

“…In China, there have been no clinical studies of EPIT, but several studies in mice model have reported its efficacy and safety ( 166 , 167 ). Zhang et al used composite microneedles (MNs) to deliver sustained antigens for EPIT ( 167 ). They found that this novel EPIT is more effective at a lower dose compared to conventional SCIT.…”