ScienceDaily (Feb. 10, 2008) — In what is believed to be the first peer-reviewed study of its kind involving human subjects, researchers at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy and the Georgia Institute of Technology have demonstrated that patches coated on one side with microscopic needles can facilitate transdermal delivery of clinically-relevant doses of a drug that normally cannot pass through the skin. Reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study could help advance the use of microneedles as a painless method for delivering drugs, proteins, DNA and vaccines into the body. The research also found other advantages for the microneedles, including an ability to produce therapeutic drug levels with lower doses, and lowered production of metabolites that may cause side-effects.
