Version 1
: Received: 31 March 2023 / Approved: 31 March 2023 / Online: 31 March 2023 (09:31:25 CEST)
How to cite:
Moghadas, H.; Kashaninejad, N. Drug Diffusion inside the Tapered Hydrogel Microneedle: A Numerical Study. Preprints2023, 2023030546. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202303.0546.v1
Moghadas, H.; Kashaninejad, N. Drug Diffusion inside the Tapered Hydrogel Microneedle: A Numerical Study. Preprints 2023, 2023030546. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202303.0546.v1
Moghadas, H.; Kashaninejad, N. Drug Diffusion inside the Tapered Hydrogel Microneedle: A Numerical Study. Preprints2023, 2023030546. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202303.0546.v1
APA Style
Moghadas, H., & Kashaninejad, N. (2023). Drug Diffusion inside the Tapered Hydrogel Microneedle: A Numerical Study. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202303.0546.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Moghadas, H. and Navid Kashaninejad. 2023 "Drug Diffusion inside the Tapered Hydrogel Microneedle: A Numerical Study" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202303.0546.v1
Abstract
Hydrogel microneedles are a promising technology for the delivery of different types of medicines locally and painlessly, as well as ISF extraction. As the hydrogel microneedles are inserted into the tissue, they swell and release drugs. To improve the effectiveness of this technology in delivering medicine at controlled and desirable doses and intervals, a deep understanding of the mechanism of drug delivery inside the microneedles is required. In this work, drug diffusion inside a tapered microneedle is investigated using numerical simulation. The microneedle is divided into many small elements, and the mass transfer equation of meloxicam is solved in each element over time. The skin is simulated as the sink in the microneedle surface for drug absorption. Simulations are performed for different sizes of microneedles. For a microneedle with a height of 500 µm and a base diameter of 250 µm, the drug completely penetrates the skin within 3.2 seconds. The rate of drug diffusion from the tip of the microneedle is higher than diffusion from the side area near the microneedle base. The obtained data demonstrate that in addition to the height and the base diameter, the microneedle’s aspect ratio, h/d, also affects the time of drug diffusion. We present a nonlinear equation to predict the time of complete drug diffusion as a function of the microneedle geometrical parameter, including the height and base diameter. The proposed equation calculates the total drug diffusion time with an error of less than 7% for all studied cases. Predicting drug diffusion patterns inside microneedles can be helpful in the biomedical field, especially in the drug-controlled release system for the optimization of drug delivery.
Keywords
Hydrogel Microneedle; Transdermal; Drug Delivery; Diffusion time; Numerical Simulation
Subject
Engineering, Bioengineering
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
