Abstract

MICRONEEDLE: BRIEF OVERVIEW IN TREATMENT OF PSORIASIS AND OTHER APPLICATIONS

Akshay Gade*, Shreya Parkar, Prajakta Kegade and Rutuja Sawant

ABSTRACT

Microneedles a microfabrication technology was first conceptualized for transdermal drug delivery many decades ago, it became the subject of significant research initiated in the mid-1990'. Transdermal drug delivery offers a desirable alternative to the conventional approaches, but the performances of currently available skin penetration enhancement techniques are not so satisfactory. Micron-sized needles were embedded on the microneedle patch in a specific sequence of dozens to hundreds with various structures with smart design work benefiting advantages over delivery using microneedle structure to the skin. Various types of microneedles such as (i) solid microneedles for skin pretreatment to increase skin permeability, (ii) microneedles coated with drug that dissolves off in the skin, (iii) polymer microneedles that encapsulate drug which completely dissolves in the skin layers and (iv)hollow microneedles which enables for drug infusion into the skin lesion. Microneedle transdermal patches are promising topically applied therapies mainly for the treatment of skin diseases such as psoriasis, contact dermatitis, and skin cancers because the drugs are delivered directly into skin strata. Recently shown that anti-tumor-necrosis-factor-alpha (TNF-a) eAb, a potent therapeutic for psoriasis when delivered systemically, can reverse key indicators of inflammation when delivered locally into the lesional skin of mice with psoriasis form dermatitis. Since psoriatic plaques are characterized by thickening of the stratum corneum, which can hinder percutaneous drug penetration, the addition of a microneedle patch seems to have had a remarkable clinical effect in this study.

Keywords: microneedle; psoriasis; Microelectromechanical; interferometry; magnetorheological.