Scientists develop a wearable patch that can painlessly deliver drugs through the skin

Wearable patch

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The skin is an attractive drug delivery route because it allows drugs to travel directly to the target site, which could be useful for wound healing or other medical and cosmetic applications.

However, drug delivery through the skin is difficult because the tough outer layer of the skin prevents most small molecules from passing through.

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Hoping to make drug delivery easier through the skin, MIT researchers have developed a wearable patch that applies painless ultrasound waves to the skin, creating tiny channels through which drugs can pass.

The researchers say this approach could lend itself to delivering treatments for a variety of skin conditions, and could also be adapted to deliver hormones, muscle relaxants and other drugs.

"Delivering drugs in this way can provide lower systemic toxicity and be more topical, convenient and controlled," says Kanan Dagdeviren, associate professor in MIT's Media Lab and senior author of the study.

The researchers started this project to explore alternative methods of drug delivery. Most drugs are administered orally or intravenously, but the skin is a medium that can provide more targeted drug delivery for specific applications.

"The main benefit of the skin is that you bypass the entire digestive system," explains Dr. Astasa Shah, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Orally you have to give a much larger dose in order to account for the loss you would experience in the digestive system. This is a more targeted and focused way of drug delivery."

Exposure to ultrasound has been shown to enhance skin permeability to small-molecule drugs, but most current techniques to perform this type of drug delivery require bulky equipment.

The MIT team wanted to come up with a way to make this type of drug delivery through the skin using a lightweight, wearable patch that could be used in a variety of applications.

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The device they designed consists of a patch embedded with several disc-shaped piezoelectric transducers, which can convert electrical currents into mechanical energy. Each tablet is embedded in a polymeric cavity containing drug particles dissolved in a liquid solution.

When an electric current is applied to the piezoelectric elements, they generate pressure waves in the liquid, creating bubbles that explode on the skin. These bursting bubbles produce tiny particles of fluid that can penetrate the tough outer layer of the skin, the stratum corneum.

“This work opens the door to the use of vibrations to enhance drug delivery,” says Amine Karami of the University at Buffalo, co-author of the study. “There are many factors that lead to the generation of different types of wave patterns. Both mechanical and biological aspects of drug delivery can be improved through the toolkit. This new one.

The patch is made of PDMS, a silicone-based polymer that can adhere to the skin without tape.

In this study, the researchers tested the device by delivering a B vitamin called niacinamide, which is an ingredient in many sunscreens and moisturizers.

In tests using pigskin, the researchers showed that when they administered niacinamide using an ultrasound patch, the amount of drug that penetrated the skin was 26 times greater than the amount that could pass through the skin without the aid of ultrasound.

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The researchers also compared the results from their new device with microneedling, a technique sometimes used to deliver drugs through the skin, which involves piercing the skin with miniature needles.

The researchers found that their patch was able to deliver the same amount of niacinamide in 30 minutes that could be delivered with fine needles over six hours.

With the current version of the device, drugs can penetrate a few millimeters into the skin, making this approach potentially useful for drugs that work topically within the skin. These could include niacinamide or vitamin C, which are used to treat age spots or other dark spots on the skin, or topical medications used to treat burns.

With further modifications to increase the depth of penetration, this technique could also be used for drugs that need to reach the bloodstream, such as caffeine, fentanyl or lidocaine.

Dagdevirin also believes this type of patch could be useful in delivering hormones such as progesterone. In addition, researchers are now exploring the possibility of implanting similar devices inside the body to deliver drugs to treat cancer or other diseases.

Scientists develop a cure for a disease that affects 80 million people around the world

A team of scientists at Trinity University in Dublin has announced an important development towards a new treatment for glaucoma.

About 80 million people globally are affected by glaucoma, with a projected increase to more than 110 million by 2040.

While topical eye drops are necessary to prevent progression of the disease, up to 10% of patients become resistant to treatment, putting them at risk of permanent vision loss.

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High eye pressure is known to be the main risk factor for glaucoma (or glaucoma). Serious increases in pressure in the eyeball can lead to serious damage to the optic nerve head, which transmits light signals to the brain to allow us to see.

This high pressure is caused by the buildup of unwanted proteins, which causes clogged drainage channels that over time can cause fluid buildup and pressure buildup.

The team at the Smurfit Genetics Institute, in collaboration with biotechnology company Exhaura Ltd, showed that a gene therapy-based approach can reduce eye pressure in pre-clinical models of glaucoma.

A single injection of a viral vector - essentially a virus that scientists have hacked to be used to deliver specific instructions to the body's cells - can increase the flow of aqueous fluid from the front of the eye and thus reduce pressure in the eye.

A basic instruction for cells to produce a matrix enzyme (metalloproteinase-3, or MMP-3) helps kick this process into gear.

Professor Matthew Campbell, Professor of Genetics at Trinity University, said: "This exciting project has allowed us to bridge the gap between academia and industry and work closely with a gene therapy company to develop an advanced treatment that we believe holds great promise for patients in the future."

Importantly, the work used multiple models of the disease as well as taking advantage of the eyes of human donors to examine the therapeutic efficacy of the gene therapy approach. This makes the impressive results more promising.

Gene therapies have seen tremendous progress in recent years, with several drugs now approved by both the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA). However, to date, all approved gene therapies are intended to treat rare or extremely rare conditions.

As our understanding of the underlying mechanism of common diseases is now more advanced, the concept of using gene therapy for common diseases is now possible.

Dr. Jeffrey O'Callaghan, postdoctoral research fellow at Trinity University and first author of the study, added: "Our new approach to treating glaucoma using gene therapy is the culmination of more than seven years of research. We now hope that this treatment will pave the way to developing treatments for other forms of the disease." Blinding eyes.”

The study was conducted by a multidisciplinary team of geneticists, ophthalmologists and multidisciplinary biologists.

The results are published in the journal Science Advances.