FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A PROGRAMMABLE MICRONEEDLE ARRAY FOR DRUG DELIVERY

Maher Amer

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy (DR) are the leading causes of blindness in the US and globally. Many solutions exit such as laser therapy, anti-VGEF intravitreal injections, anti-VGEF dispensing device implants and Microneedles to treat AMD and DR. However, two main factors hinder the success of such solutions, namely, high invasiveness and the lack of regulated sustained drug delivery. Laser therapy, injections implants and surgically adhered MNs are known to have side effects such as hemorrhaging, scarring and inflammation when applied to the eye. And apart from MNs and implants, a sustained regulated drug delivery is not possible. The goal of this research is achieving a minimally invasive and a sustained drug delivery to the eye. In order to achieve a minimally invasive ocular drug delivery to the eye this research proposed the use of a self-adhesive and self-detaching MNs that does not require adhering or removal surgery. The MNs device achieved a 4 weeks sustained drug release with the possibility to achieve more. Thus, the device minimized the invasiveness found in most solutions to AMD and DR and also achieved a sustained regulated drug delivery that will eliminate toxicity and wastage of drug delivery. To accomplish self-adhesiveness an investigation into the use of bio inspired interlocking features geometrical parameters and how they affect penetration and adhesion forces was conducted. MNs with interlocking features were tested on sclera mimicking model to assess the penetration forces and adhesion forces comparing 3 designs including MNs with no interlocking features. Higher adhesion forces can be achieved eliminating the need for surgical attachments by increasing width parameters on interlocking features. Also, it was found that penetration forces did not rise significantly to the point where it causes high invasiveness. Also, the use of light activated volume change was investigated to achieve lower force extraction. Employing all the parts of this research together allowed for the characterization and fabrication of a new MNs device capable of self-adhering thanks to interlocking features and easy self-detachment thanks to the use of spiropyran infused hydrogels while achieving a sustained drug delivery.

FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A PROGRAMMABLE MICRONEEDLE ARRAY FOR DRUG DELIVERY

Files and links (1)

Abstract

Metrics

Details