Programmable transdermal drug delivery of nicotine using carbon nanotube membranes

Abstract

Carbon nanotube (CNT) membranes were employed as the active element of a switchable transdermal drug delivery device that can facilitate more effective treatments of drug abuse and addiction. Due to the dramatically fast flow through CNT cores, high charge density, and small pore dimensions, highly efficient electrophoretic pumping through functionalized CNT membrane was achieved. These membranes were integrated with a nicotine formulation to obtain switchable transdermal nicotine delivery rates on human skin (in vitro) and are consistent with a Fickian diffusion in series model. The transdermal nicotine delivery device was able to successfully switch between high (1.3 + or - 0.65 micromol/hr-cm(2)) and low (0.33 + or - 0.22 micromol/hr-cm(2)) fluxes that coincide with therapeutic demand levels for nicotine cessation treatment. These highly energy efficient programmable devices with minimal skin irritation and no skin barrier disruption would open an avenue for single application long-wear patches for therapies that require variable or programmable delivery rates.

Fig. 1.

SEM images of microtome-cut CNT membrane (A) cross-sectional view and (B) top view; (C) schematic shows the molecular structure of the anionic dye covalently functionalized on the surface of CNTs (gray: C; red: O; blue: N; yellow: S).

Fig. 2.

(A) Flux of nicotine through CNT membrane with/without applying a -300 mV bias. The ratio of -300 mV to 0 mV nicotine flux is 5.5. Donor solution is a pH8 220 mM (35 mg/mL) nicotine aqueous solution; (B) schematic for switchable transdermal drug delivery (skin/gel/CNT membrane). Active area of CNT membrane is 0.07 cm².

Fig. 3.

Cumulative nicotine drug release from three CNTs/gel/human skin design using 0 and -600 mV biases. Different CNT membranes and skin samples were used for each experiment (A–C) with solid curves as simulated data and solid points as experimental data.