Now there is a relief from pain for those patients who need to take frequent injections in the course of the treatment given to them. Researchers in the United States (US) have developed 3D printed microneedles using a 3D printer, which will be able to administer the medicinal drugs in the human body without any pain to the patient.
With the help of a new technique, the drugs will be diffused within the human body. At the same time the micro-needles made from bio-material will degrade in the human body after administering the medicine in the body.
Reportedly, these researchers produced drug loaded array. Each array consists of 25 poly (propylene fumarate) micro needles, and each needle has a tip and base diameter of 20 micrometers and 200 micrometers with the height of 1 mm respectively.
These arrays were fabricated using micro-stereolithography. They were produced for transdermal delivery of a chemotherapeutic drug. These microneedles can offer relief for many people who are undergoing treatments for some diseases including skin cancer.
One of the study authors Jae-Won Choi from University of Akron said that it was difficult to print this array in 3D because the biomaterial that is printable contains some solvents and drugs that are non-printable.
He also said that they would like to have the drug released faster in the body, but for that more material research was necessary. They are looking forward to developing more controlled drug release after they improve this process.
How Do Micro-needles Deliver Drugs?
The researchers from the University of Akron in Ohio, US, and University Of Texas, US, published these results in the Journal Biofabrication on 30th September.
Researchers are also hoping that this device will get used clinically in next five to ten years. If this device is made available for the common people in next few years after testing its viability, it will surely offer a relief to many.
