Abstract
In recent years, controlled release of drugs has posed numerous challenges with the aim of optimizing parameters such as the release of the suitable quantity of drugs in the right site at the right time with the least invasiveness and the greatest possible automation. Some of the factors that challenge conventional drug release include long-term treatments, narrow therapeutic windows, complex dosing schedules, combined therapies, individual dosing regimens, and labile active substance administration. In this sense, the emergence of micro-devices that combine mechanical and electrical components, so called micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) can offer solutions to these drawbacks. These devices can be fabricated using biocompatible materials, with great uniformity and reproducibility, similar to integrated circuits. They can be aseptically manufactured and hermetically sealed, while having mobile components that enable physical or analytical functions together with electrical components. In this review we present recent advances in the generation of MEMS drug delivery devices, in which various micro and nanometric structures such as contacts, connections, channels, reservoirs, pumps, valves, needles, and/or membranes can be included in their design and manufacture. Implantable single and multiple reservoir-based and transdermal-based MEMS devices are discussed in terms of fundamental mechanisms, fabrication, performance, and drug release applications.
Highlights
The design and development of novel materials and devices for medicine is one of the exciting new areas of bioengineering and biotechnology, which is rapidly gaining the attention of the scientific community (Zhang et al, 2011; Hardy et al, 2013; Copes et al, 2019; Hu and de Vos, 2019; Tamay et al, 2019)
This review introduces the field of micro-electro-mechanical devices for controlled drug release applications and is organized as follows
This study demonstrated that the fabricated device could be used for drug release in mice with controlled volume and delivery rates
Summary
The design and development of novel materials and devices for medicine is one of the exciting new areas of bioengineering and biotechnology, which is rapidly gaining the attention of the scientific community (Zhang et al, 2011; Hardy et al, 2013; Copes et al, 2019; Hu and de Vos, 2019; Tamay et al, 2019). Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) are technological devices which can be well-defined as miniaturized mechanical and electro-mechanical elements creating miniature integrated systems or devices (Lyshevski, 2002; Villanueva et al, 2016) They varied from comparatively simple structures having no moving parts, to very complex systems with numerous moving elements under the control of combined microelectronics. MEMS production technologies uses high performance processing that usually includes addition or subtraction of 2D layers on a substrate based on mainly photolithography techniques and a variety of thin-film deposit and patterning technologies, together with selective chemical etching (Madou, 2002)
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