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Review
. 2021 Oct 28;12(11):1321.
doi: 10.3390/mi12111321.

Microneedles in Drug Delivery: Progress and Challenges

Muhammet Avcil  1 , Ayhan Çelik  1
Affiliations
Review

Microneedles in Drug Delivery: Progress and Challenges

Muhammet Avcil et al. Micromachines (Basel). .

Abstract

In recent years, an innovative transdermal delivery technology has attracted great interest for its ability to distribute therapeutics and cosmeceuticals for several applications, including vaccines, drugs, and biomolecules for skin-related problems. The advantages of microneedle patch technology have been extensively evaluated in the latest literature; hence, the academic publications in this area are rising exponentially. Like all new technologies, the microneedle patch application has great potential but is not without limitations. In this review, we will discuss the possible limitations by highlighting the areas where a great deal of improvements are required. Emphasising these concerns early on should help scientists and technologists to address the matters in a timely fashion and to use their resources wisely.

Keywords: microneedles; transdermal drug delivery; transdermal patch technology; vaccine delivery.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Some of the pioneering and key developments in MN research [3,4,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39].
Figure 2
Figure 2
A schematic diagram of microneedle (MN)-based drug delivery approaches with the cross section of the upper layer of the skin. The approaches are (a) solid MNs, (b) coated MNs, (c) hollow MNs, (d) dissolving MNs, and (e) hydrogel-forming MNs. The step-by-step process of each delivery approach is numbered from 1 to 3. Representative microscopic images of MN types and examples of deliverable payloads such as drugs and bio-macromolecules are also shown. Images was adopted with permission from [42,43]).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Factors effecting development of microneedle-based delivery system.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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