Christmas Tree-Shaped Microneedles as FOLFIRINOX Spatiotemporal Delivery System for Pancreatic Cancer Treatment

Abstract

As an effective combination chemotherapy, FOLFIRINOX regimen (fluorouracil, leucovorin, irinotecan, and oxaliplatin) has shown definite antitumor efficacy for treating pancreatic cancer (PC) nowadays. However, the traditional systematic administration of these chemotherapeutics limits the drug targeting and causes unwanted effects. Herein, we present a novel Christmas tree-shaped adhesive microneedle (MN) patch coloading fluorouracil, leucovorin, irinotecan, and oxaliplatin simultaneously to realize spatiotemporal FOLFIRINOX therapy in situ. Such MN patch was fabricated by using a layer-by-layer mold replication method, in which oxaliplatin and leucovorin are encapsulated in the top MNs, while irinotecan and fluorouracil are encapsulated in the bottom MNs. The multilayer structure imparts the MNs with enhanced adhesive ability and spatiotemporal drug release property, contributing to the antitumor effect on PC organoid models. Therefore, our Christmas tree-shaped MN patch represents an innovative approach for spatiotemporal multiple-drug delivering and realizes the combination chemotherapy for PC in a single platform.