Polymeric microneedles for enhanced drug delivery in cancer therapy

Microneedles (MNs) have attracted the interest of researchers. Polymeric MNs offer tremendous promise as drug delivery vehicles for bio-applications because of their high loading capacity, strong patient adherence, excellent biodegradability and biocompatibility, low toxicity, and extremely cheap cost. Incorporating enhanced-property nanomaterials into polymeric MNs matrix increases their features such as better mechanical strength, sustained drug delivery, lower toxicity, and higher therapeutic effects, therefore considerably increasing their biomedical application.

Highlights

• Polymeric microneedles are promising strategies for improving drug delivery.

• Polymers for the fabrication of polymeric microneedles are presented.

• The various methods for producing polymeric microneedles are discussed.

• The application of polymeric microneedles in cancer therapy is explored.

• The potential and future challenges of using polymeric microneedles in cancer treatment are highlighted.

This paper discusses polymeric MN fabrication techniques and the present status of polymeric MNs as a delivery method for enhanced drug delivery in cancer therapeutic applications. Furthermore, the opportunities and challenges of polymeric MNs for improved drug delivery in cancer therapy are highlighted.

Bricard Mbituyimana, Guangrui Ma, Zhijun Shi, Guang Yang,
Polymeric microneedles for enhanced drug delivery in cancer therapy,
Biomaterials Advances, Volume 142, 2022, 213151, ISSN 2772-9508,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bioadv.2022.213151.

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