Design and Evaluation of Dissolvable Microneedles for Treating Atopic Dermatitis

Noa Ben David, Yuval Richtman, Adi Gross, Ruba Ibrahim, Abraham Nyska, Yuval Ramot, Boaz Mizrahi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease caused predominantly by immune dysregulation. The global impact of AD continues to increase, making it not only a significant public health issue but also a risk factor for progression into other allergic phenotype disorders. Treatment of moderate-to-severe symptomatic AD involves general skin care, restoration of the skin barrier function, and local anti-inflammatory drug combinations, and may also require systemic therapy, which is often associated with severe adverse effects and is occasionally unsuitable for long-term use. The main objective of this study was to develop a new delivery system for AD treatment based on dissolvable microneedles containing dexamethasone incorporated in a dissolvable polyvinyl alcohol/polyvinylpyrrolidone matrix. SEM imaging of the microneedles showed well-structured arrays comprising pyramidal needles, fast drug release in vitro in Franz diffusion cells, an appropriate mechanical strength recorded with a texture analyzer, and low cytotoxicity. Significant clinical improvements, including in the dermatitis score, spleen weights, and clinical scores, were observed in an AD in vivo model using BALB/c nude mice. Taken together, our results support the hypothesis that microneedle devices loaded with dexamethasone have great potential as a treatment for AD and possibly for other skin conditions as well.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1109
JournalPharmaceutics
Volume15
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 31 Mar 2023
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.

Funding

The research leading to these results received funding from the Israeli Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology (no. 0004497) and the Irving and Branna Sisenwein Fund. The authors also thank the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, Technion. Thanks are also extended to Maya Davidovich-Pinhas and Daniel Golodnizky for their help in the compression analysis and to Yehonatan Zur for the insertion test. This research was funded by the Israeli Ministry of Innovation, grant number 0004497 and “Irving and Branna Sisenwein”.

FundersFunder number
Israeli Ministry of Innovation
Israeli Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology0004497

    Keywords

    • PVA
    • PVP
    • atopic dermatitis
    • dexamethasone
    • dissolving microneedles
    • drug release

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