Transdermal Drug Delivery Based on Liquid Needles Generated by Hypersonic Systems

Conventional drug delivery relies on oral uptake and injection, which may be painful and cause side effects to the patients. To overcome these drawbacks, transdermal delivery based on micro/nanoscale devices has been proposed. Here, we developed a new transdermal delivery approach using MEMS fabricated hypersonic system. The GHz resonator could locally generate high acoustic pressure in liquids and further induces `liquid needles' to enhance the drug permeation to the skin. Dextran was used as the drug models for in vitro delivery through semipermeable membrane and excised rat skin. The influence of delivery time, applied power and molecular weight of drugs were investigated. The results show a good controllability and easy to operate. With the advantages of low energy consumption and miniaturization, this approach demonstrates a good alternative for current transdermal delivery system.