International Journal of Nanomedicine (Dec 2023)

Advances in Formulations of Microneedle System for Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment

  • Guo P,
  • Huang C,
  • Yang Q,
  • Zhong G,
  • Zhang J,
  • Qiu M,
  • Zeng R,
  • Gou K,
  • Zhang C,
  • Qu Y

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 18
pp. 7759 – 7784

Abstract

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Peng Guo,1,* Chi Huang,2,* Qin Yang,1 Guofeng Zhong,1 Junbo Zhang,1 Mengyu Qiu,1 Rui Zeng,3 Kaijun Gou,3 Chen Zhang,1 Yan Qu1 1State Key Laboratory of Southwestern Chinese Medicine Resources, School of Pharmacy, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, 611137, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Pharmacy, Jiang’an Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Yibin, 644200, People’s Republic of China; 3Institute of Tibetan Plateau, Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu, 610225, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yan Qu; Chen Zhang, State Key Laboratory of Southwestern Chinese Medicine Resources, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, 610072, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]; [email protected]: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by chronic joint inflammation, eventually leading to severe disability and premature death. At present, the treatment of RA is mainly to reduce inflammation, swelling, and pain. Commonly used drugs are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), glucocorticoids, and disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). These drugs lack specificity and require long-term, high-dose administration, which can cause serious adverse effects. In addition, the oral, intravenous, and intra-articular injections will reduce patient compliance, resulting in high cost and low bioavailability. Due to these limitations, microneedles (MNs) have emerged as a new strategy to efficiently localize the drugs in inflamed joints for the treatment of RA. MNs can overcome the cuticle barrier of the skin without stimulating nerves and blood vessels. Which can increase patient compliance, improve bioavailability, and avoid systemic circulation. This review summarizes and evaluates the application of MNs in RA, especially dissolving MNs (DMNs). We encourage the use of MNs to treat RA, by describing the general properties of MNs, materials, preparation technology, drug release mechanism, and advantages. Furthermore, we discussed the biological safety, development prospects, and future challenges of MNs, hoping to provide a new strategy for the treatment of RA. Keywords: rheumatoid arthritis, dissolving microneedles, transdermal delivery system, degradability, biosafety

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