Green Science Alliance Developed Dissolvable Biodegradable Micro Needle with Human Body Friendly Natural Materials

KAWANISHI-CITY, Japan, Jan. 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Green Science Alliance has been developing cutting edge technology in the field of energy and environmentally friendly area in order to establish carbon neutral, sustainable society. This time, they have developed dissolvable biodegradable micro needle with human body friendly natural materials.

There are several routes of medical administration such as oral administration, Sublingual administration, eye drops, nasal administration, inhalation medicine, rectal administration and injection needle to vein, muscle and skin. On top of that, transdermal administration such as skin patch or ointment, are also one of the drug administration procedures. Among these, the injection procedure is very effective because it can introduce drug medicine into the blood vessel directly, although they always suffer with pain because they use needles.

In this point of view, transdermal procedure has been focused recently since they do not come along with a pain problem. Electroporation, electro-permeabilization, iontophoresis procedure, sonophoresis, are the examples of transdermal procedure although real industrial application could be difficult because they require large electric or ultrasonic apparatus.   

In contrast, attention has been paid to micro needle therapy due to its handiness and simplicity to perform transdermal drug release. Micro needle patch is one of the technology in which drugs were either contained in or coated on micro needles so that medicine can be injected into human body through tiny holes at stratum corneum. Pain caused by these micro needles are either less or almost none compared to existing injection needle.     

So far, hard metals such as silicon, titanium and stainless, or thermoplastic resins such as polycarbonate, have been tested and considered as materials for micro needle. However, they do not dissolve in the body, and there is the risk of breakage of micro needle which may remain under the skin. In addition, even the size of needle is in micro level range, patients still may find them a little painful. 

On the other hand, micro needles composed of biodegradable resin such as polylactic acid (PLA), polyglycol acid (PGA) and poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) are safe and environmentally friendly and can be readily manufactured with injection or template molding process. In addition, hyaluronic acid and polysaccharide such as dextrin, proteins such as collagen and gelatin are also biologically friendly good materials for biodegradable micro needles. 

In this circumstances, Mr. Hirohisa Iwabayashi and Dr. Ryohei Mori at Green Science Alliance have developed biodegradable micro needle with polysaccharide which is safe and dissoluble in the human body. This type of biodegradable micro needles has been attracting much attention recently as next generation transdermal technology because they can be applied for DDS (Drug Delivery System) in which drugs and medicines can be carried into human body effectively without pain.  

Various type of drugs and active ingredients can be combined with this type of micro needle and can be used as needle patch therapy to the skin surface. When natural biodegradable micro needle patch is attached to the skin, drugs and active ingredients can be introduced into human body by dissolving biodegradable micro needle under the skin. Thus, efficacy of drug administration can be much higher than ointment.   

As such, dissolvable biodegradable micro needle has more advantages compared to conventional injection needle and can be applied to not only medical usages but also for cosmetic application. 

Green Science Alliance will seek for the real business application based on these products. Furthermore, they are planning to combine this natural biodegradable micro needle with advanced materials such as quantum dot, ionic liquid which they synthesize in their company, as well as to utilize them for various kinds of medical, cosmetic applications. 

Media contact:
Ryohei Mori
[email protected]
+81727598501

SOURCE Green Science Alliance Co., Ltd.