Microneedle-assisted transdermal delivery of acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) from biopolymer films extracted from fish scales

This study investigates the transdermal release of aspirin (ASA) from films of hydrolyzed collagen obtained from fish scales. The patches were made with 0.2 g of ASA dissolved in 99% ethanol and 1.98 g of the extracted fish scale biopolymer (FSBP) dissolved in 10 mL distilled water which is then dried. Porcine skin is pre-treated with solid metal microneedles. ASA-loaded FSBP patch is then applied. The skin samples were placed on diffusion cells. Samples were taken at varying times: 5, 24, and 48 h and tested for the presence of ASA using UV spectrometry-based method introduced in this study. The results obtained showed that for all repeated study, no ASA was detected in the receiver compartment after 5 h. After 24 h up to 0.24 mg/mL ASA had released into the receiver compartment; and after 48 h, a concentration 0.74 mg/mL had been reached for skin samples treated with microneedles. ASA was not detected in the receiver compartment for skin samples that were not pre-treated with microneedles after 5 h. After 24 h, the concentration of 0.04 mg/mL was recorded, and at 48 h, concentration of 0.045 mg/mL was detected. This study presents for the first time transdermal drug delivery (TDD) films made of FSBP applied as drug delivery films for ASA and the use of microneedles to significantly enhance the release of ASA from the ASA-FSBP TDD films using the ‘poke and patch’ method. We also present a novel method for testing ASA in the TDD study using reaction with ferrous gluconate.