Molded all-in-one microneedles to administer diverse drugs in clinical biomedical field

Abstract

Microneedle technologies, owing to their minimally invasive nature, can be used to administer various drugs and could be beneficial for numerous applications in the healthcare and biomedical fields. Molded microneedles featuring carriers and drugs in one single unit have been identified as traditional microneedles. Molded microneedles with various dimensions and micro-nano structures can be fabricated from numerous materials, typically using one to three casting solutions filled into a microneedle mold with multi-stage reactions followed by centrifugation or vacuum treatment, drying, curing, and demolding. This review examines the fabrication methodologies of various molded microneedle architectures, with comparison of their material properties and applications performance characteristics. This paper also enumerates the clinical biomedical applications of molded microneedles (e.g., transdermal administration, gastrointestinal therapies, and oral health). Future research efforts with respect to clinical translation are also discussed.