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Polymer Vesicles with Upper Critical Solution Temperature for Near-infrared Light-triggered Transdermal Delivery of Metformin in Diabetic Rats

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Abstract

Near-infrared light (NIR) triggered transdermal drug delivery systems are of great interest due to their on-demand drug release, which enable to enhance drug treatment efficiency as well as reduce side effect. Herein, a NIR-triggered microneedle (MN) patch array has been fabricated through depositing the photothermal conversion agent and anti-diabetic drug-loaded polymer vesicles with upper critical solution temperature (UCST) into dissolvable polymer matrix. The UCST-type polymer has a clearing point temperature of 41 °C and the drug-loaded polymer vesicles present excellent NIR-triggered and temperature responsive drug release behavior in vitro due to the disassociation of polymer vesicles upon NIR irradiation. After applying MNs to diabetic rats, significant hypoglycemic effect is achieved upon interval NIR irradiation and the blood glucose concentration can decrease to normal state for several hours, which enables to achieve the goal of on-demand drug release. This work suggests that the NIR-triggered MN drug release device has a potential application in the treatment of diabetes, especially for those requiring an active drug release manner.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (No. LY20E030005) and the Opening Project of Jiangxi Province Key Laboratory of Polymer Micro/Nano Manufacturing and Devices (No. PMND201905).

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering and Institute of Smart Biomedical Materials, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, 310018, China

    Wei Hu, Ya-Wei Su, Yi-Kun Jiang, Wen-Di Fan, Song-Yue Cheng, Zai-Zai Tong & Guo-Hua Jiang

  2. Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310003, China

    Chao Cen

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  1. Wei Hu
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  2. Ya-Wei Su
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Correspondence to Zai-Zai Tong or Chao Cen.

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10118_2021_2640_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Polymer Vesicles with Upper Critical Solution Temperature for Near-infrared Light-triggered Transdermal Delivery of Metformin in Diabetic Rats

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Hu, W., Su, YW., Jiang, YK. et al. Polymer Vesicles with Upper Critical Solution Temperature for Near-infrared Light-triggered Transdermal Delivery of Metformin in Diabetic Rats. Chin J Polym Sci 40, 157–165 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-021-2640-x

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