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Review
. 2023 Jun;13(6):2298-2309.
doi: 10.1016/j.apsb.2023.05.009. Epub 2023 May 15.

Wearable patches for transdermal drug delivery

Jiahui He  1 , Yuyue Zhang  1 , Xinge Yu  1   2 , Chenjie Xu  1
Affiliations
Review

Wearable patches for transdermal drug delivery

Jiahui He et al. Acta Pharm Sin B. 2023 Jun.

Abstract

Transdermal drug delivery systems (TDDs) avoid gastrointestinal degradation and hepatic first-pass metabolism, providing good drug bioavailability and patient compliance. One emerging type of TDDs is the wearable patch worn on the skin surface to deliver medication through the skin. They can generally be grouped into passive and active types, depending on the properties of materials, design principles and integrated devices. This review describes the latest advancement in the development of wearable patches, focusing on the integration of stimulus-responsive materials and electronics. This development is deemed to provide a dosage, temporal, and spatial control of therapeutics delivery.

Keywords: Biomaterials; Drug delivery; Microneedles; Transdermal delivery; Wearable patch.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Image 1
Graphical abstract
Figure 1
Figure 1
The timeline of transdermal drug delivery (TDD) systems development.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematic illustration of the skin anatomical structure (Reprinted with permission from Ref. . Copyright © 2021 MDPI).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Hydrogel patch in TDD. (a) Polyacrylamide/polydopamine (PAM/PDA) hydrogel with epidermal adhesion (Reprinted with permission from Ref. . Copyright © 2020 Wiley). (b) The thermogel for transdermal delivery of 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) (Reprinted with permission from Ref. . Copyright © 2021 Wiley). (c) A pH-responsive hydrogel patch for treating chronic wounds (Reprinted with permission from Ref. . Copyright © 2019 Royal Society of Chemistry).
Figure 4
Figure 4
MN patch for TDD. (a) The touching-induced MN patch integrating with external insulin-loaded nanovesicle (Reprinted with permission from Ref. . Copyright © 2018 Taylor & Francis group). (b) HA MNs coated with Canine influenza vaccine for rapid immune response (Reprinted with permission from Ref. . Copyright © 2018 Elsevier). (c) A microfluid chip coupled with the hollow MN patch for the delivery of multiple drugs (Reprinted with permission from Ref. . Copyright © 2019 MENU). (d) Dissolving MN patch for high-dosage insulin delivery (Reprinted with permission from Ref. . Copyright © 2020 Elsevier).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Electricity-stimulated wearable patch for TDD. (a) Battery-free and wireless wearable devices for wound infection monitoring and management (Reprinted with permission from Ref. . Copyright © 2021 Wiley). (b) Tissue-like, conductive hydrogel system for wearable biosensing and ionophoresis-based delivery (Reprinted with permission from Ref. . Copyright © 2021 AAAS). (c) Piezoelectric-based MN tape for delivering the anti-inflammatory drug (Reprinted with permission from Ref. . Copyright © 2021 Wiley).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Ultrasound-based wearable devices for TDD: (a) Noninvasive delivery of lidocaine by acoustic droplet-vaporization-based wearable devices (Reprinted with permission from Ref. . Copyright © 2018 Wiley). (b) Electro-mechanochemical gating for controlled guest-release patches and injectable gels (Reprinted with permission from Ref. . Copyright © 2021 ACS). (c) Bubble-generating MN delivering photodynamic agent for transdermal cancer therapy (Reprinted with permission from Ref. . Copyright © 2021 ACS). (d) Flav7 + DOX co-loaded MN for light-triggered tumors treatment (Reprinted with permission from Ref. . Copyright © 2022 Elsevier).
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