Laboratory Online is a series of educational and interactive modules offered by the Simon group. The purpose of the project is to enhance knowledge in drug-delivery technologies and underlying engineering principles.
Within this user-friendly environment, practitioners and researchers can enter their own process parameter values in corresponding boxes (or use the default quantities provided). The findings of the simulation study are monitored in real-time by pressing the red-shaded button near the bottom of the page.
Dissolving microneedles for transdermal drug delivery
This interactive module estimates the drug concentration c in the skin after local application of a dissolving microneedle (MN) patch. The conical needles of height h are made of water-soluble polymers which encapsulate an active pharmaceutical ingredient within the MNs. The needles are able to penetrate both the epidermis and dermis but do not reach nerves located deep inside the dermis. After applying the patch to the skin, the MNs begin to dissolve, which results in the accumulation of the drug in the dermis and its subsequent elimination into the bloodstream. The elimination rate constant is kL and the mass fraction of drug in an MN is β . In Fig. 1, the spacing between two dots represents a time interval of 0.2τ0 seconds where τ0 is a characteristic time constant for dissolution [1 ].
Fig. 1. Dissolving microneedle patch.
References
[1] Kim, K.S., Ita, K. and Simon, L. (2015), Modelling of dissolving microneedles for transdermal drug delivery: theoretical and experimental aspects, European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Accepted.
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