Finite Element Analysis for Biodegradable Dissolving Microneedle Materials on Skin Puncture and Mechanical Performance Evaluation.

Qinying Yan,Yan Wang,Gensheng Yang,Shulin Shen,Gensuo Zheng,Qingliang Yang,Min Fang,Jiaqi Weng

doi:10.3390/polym13183043

Abstract

In this study, a micro-molding technology was used to prepare the microneedles (MNs), while a texture analyzer was used to measure its Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio and compression breaking force, to evaluate whether the MNs can penetrate the skin. The effects of different materials were characterized by their ability to withstand stresses using the Structural Mechanics Module of COMSOL Multiphysics. Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) was chosen as the needle formulation material with varying quantities of polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and hyaluronic acid (HA) to adjust the viscosity, brittleness, hardness and solubility of the material. The results of both the experimental tests and the predictions indicated that the hardest tip material had a solids content of 15% ( ) with a 1:2 () CMC: HA ratio. Furthermore, it was shown that a solid content of 10% () with a 1:5 () CMC: PVA ratio is suitable for making patches. The correlation between the mechanical properties and the different materials was found using the simulation analysis as well as the force required for different dissolving microneedles (DMNs) to penetrate the skin, which significantly promoted the research progress of microneedle transdermal drug delivery.

Highlights

Accepted: 7 September 2021Nowadays, the most commonly used drug delivery methods are injections and oral treatments, but they both have certain limitations
The present study aims to establish a method that can simulate the mechanical properties of dissolving microneedles (DMNs) and find more prescriptions for DMNs that can successfully penetrate the human dermis for drug delivery by this method
Buckling is defined as the loss of structural stability and mechanical behavior of the DMNs

Summary

Introduction

Accepted: 7 September 2021Nowadays, the most commonly used drug delivery methods are injections and oral treatments, but they both have certain limitations. MNs are small, miniature wound invasive devices with a needle length of 25–2000 μm and a tip diameter of 1–25 μm, which can penetrate the dermis to deliver drugs without pain and with a very low probability of bacterial infection [7]. They can be generally divided into solid microneedles [8], coated microneedles [9], hollow microneedles [10], hydrogel-forming microneedles and dissolving microneedles (DMNs) [11]. DMNs are fabricated with various high molecular polymers such as chitosan (CS) [12], poly-lactide-co-glycolide (PLGA) [13], polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) [14], CMC [15], Published: 9 September 2021

Methods

Results

Conclusion