Microneedles are minimally-invasive medical devices that offer pain-free drug administration to present a solution to needle phobia. The organization of needles in microscale on an array/patch, are advantageous in comparison to conventional needles for a wide range of drug delivery and sample collecting purposes along with broad biomedical applications such as wound healing, biosignal acquisition, sustained vaccination, cosmetics, and wearable sensors. As an advancement step for sustainability, unlike conventional needles that require several disposable units such as sharps disposal containers along with medical waste units, microneedles can be designed and prepared in biodegradable and dissolvable forms, minimizing the need for these disposal units and their special protocols for waste management.
Development of microneedles can include (i) creating advanced designs for specific end-applications, (ii) engineering materials and techniques for their fabrication, (iii) optimizing techniques for their design and administration, implementing procedures such as automized optimization and artificial intelligence (AI) methods, (iv) broadening their biomedical applications, (v) integrating with technologies such as microfluidics and biosensors to advance their applications, and (vi) investigating post-administration procedures and preparing clinical translation.
Microneedle-mediated delivery of drugs and therapeutical agents into human skin allows for continuous and robust management of a wide range of chronic disorders and diseases e.g., microneedles can deliver anticancer therapies. Glucose-responsive microneedles combined with insulin-loaded drug delivery unit can enable minimally-invasive management of diabetes. Long-acting delivery enabled by microneedles allows for the absorption of the drug slowly from the site of administration into the systemic circulation. Painless withdrawal of the biological fluids from the human body presents opportunities in continual biosensing applications. Additionally, due to direct targeting, microneedles are among the best candidates for managing skin disorders and diseases. With the integration of high-throughput, multiplexed analysis and AI-augmented data processing, microneedles can pave the way for personalized medicine.
