Pharmaceutical Formulations & Drug Delivery

Transdermal drug delivery represents an appealing alternaÆŸ ve to convenÆŸ onal drug administraÆŸ on systems. The development of dissolvable and biodegradable polymer microneedles has recently aÆ© racted huge aÆ© enÆŸ on, due to their high paÆŸ ent compliance. Stamp based procedures guaranty high ÆŸ p resoluÆŸ on and reproducibility, but they generally present some constrains in terms of process ÆŸ me, low system engineering degree, possible contaminaÆŸ ons, and inability in using thermo-sensiÆŸ ve drugs. In this work, a novel stamp-based microneedle fabricaÆŸ on method is proposed, allowing a fast room temperature producÆŸ on of mulÆŸ -compartmental biodegradable polymeric microneedles for controlled intradermal drug release. In detail, microneedles are composed by a polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) fast dissolvable ÆŸ p and a slow dissolving body, made of assembled porous poly(lacÆŸ de-co-glycolide) (PLGA) micro parÆŸ cles (μPs). Microneedles ability to indent was assessed in a skin model. Controlled intradermal delivery was demonstrated loading both the ÆŸ p and the body of the microneedles with a model therapeuÆŸ cs, POXA1b laccase from Pleurotus ostreatus, a commercial enzyme used for the whitening of skin spots. Enzyme- loaded microneedles acÆŸ on and their indentaÆŸ on ability was assessed in an advanced in vitro skin model showing their ability to control the kineÆŸ c release of the encapsulated compound.