Nanoemulsion-based dissolving microneedle arrays for enhanced intradermal and transdermal delivery.
Drug Deliv Transl Res 2021;
12:881-896. [PMID:
34939170 PMCID:
PMC8694761 DOI:
10.1007/s13346-021-01107-0]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/06/2021] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
Abstract
The development of dissolving microneedles (DMN) is one of the advanced technologies in transdermal drug delivery systems, which precisely deliver the drugs through a rapid dissolution of polymers after insertion into the skin. In this study, we fabricated nanoemulsion-loaded dissolving microneedle (DMN) arrays for intradermal and transdermal drug delivery. For this task, model drug (amphotericin B, AmB)-loaded nanoemulsion (NE) were prepared by the probe-sonication method. AmB-loaded-NE was prepared using Capmul MCM C-8 EP/NF, Tween® 80, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA-10 kDa), and poly (vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP-360 kDa or K29/32) by using SpeedMixer™, followed by probe-sonication and evaluated for particle size and polydispersity index (PDI). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was also used to assess the particle size before and after DMN casting. AmB-NE embedded DMN arrays were found to be strong enough, revealed efficient skin insertion, and penetrated down to the fourth layer (depth ≈ 508 μm) of Parafilm M® (validated skin model). Ex vivo skin deposition experiments in full-thickness neonatal porcine demonstrated that after 24 h, AmB-NE-DMN arrays were able to deposit 111.05 ± 48.4 µg/patch AmB into the skin. At the same time, transdermal porcine skin permeation studies showed significantly higher permeability of AmB (29.60 ± 8.23 μg/patch) from AmB-NE-DMN compared to MN-free AmB-NE patches (5.0 ± 6.15 μg/patch) over 24 h. Antifungal studies of optimized AmB-NE-DMN, AmB-loaded discs and drug-free DMN against Candida albicans, confirmed the synergistic activity of Campul-MCM C-8, used in the nanoemulsion formulation. This study establishes that nanoemulsion based dissolving microneedle may serve as an efficient system for intradermal as well as transdermal drug delivery.
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