Ice-pop making inspired photothermal ultra-swelling microneedles to facilitate loading and intradermal vaccination of tumor antigen.

Cancer vaccines hold great promise in the fight against cancer. Here, we report an ice-pop making inspired photothermal ultra-swelling microneedle (PUSMN) patch for facilitating and enhancing cancer vaccination. The PUSMN patch consist of an array of microneedles made from photo-crosslinked methacrylated hyaluronic acid and polydopamine, a near-infrared photothermal conversion material, connected to a customized resin handle like an ice-pop stick.

Rapid Correction of the Hypoglycemia State in Nonhuman Primates Using a Glucagon Long-Dissolving Microneedle Patch.

The timely administration of glucagon is a standard clinical practice for the treatment of severe hypoglycemia. However, the process involves cumbersome steps, including the reconstitution of labile glucagon and filling of the syringe, which cause considerable delays in emergency situations. Moreover, multiple dosages are often required to prevent the recurrence of the hypoglycemic episode because of the short half-life of glucagon in plasma.

Co-delivery of dendritic cell vaccine and anti-PD-1 antibody with cryomicroneedles for combinational immunotherapy.

Combinational immunotherapy of dendritic cell (DC) vaccines and anti-programmed cell death protein 1 antibodies (aPD1) has been regarded as a promising strategy for cancer treatment because it not only induces tumor-specific T cell immune responses, but also prevents failure of T cell functions by the immune suppressive milieu of tumors. Microneedles have emerged as an innovative platform for efficient transdermal immunotherapies. However, co-delivery of DC vaccines and aPD1 via microneedles has not been studied since conventional microneedle platforms are unsuitable for fragile therapeutics like living cells and antibodies.

A Rapidly Dissolvable Microneedle Patch with Tip-Accumulated Antigens for Efficient Transdermal Vaccination.

Dissolvable microneedles (DMNs) are an attractive alternative for vaccine delivery due to their user-friendly, skin-targeted, and minimally invasive features. However, vaccine waste and inaccurate dosage remain significant issues faced by DMNs, as the skin's elasticity makes it difficult to insert MNs completely. Here, a simple and reliable fabrication method are introduced based on two-casting micromolding with centrifugal drying to create a rapidly DMN patch made of hyaluronic acid.

Engineering Surfaces with Immune Modulating Properties of Mucin Hydrogels.

Hydrogels of cross-linked mucin glycoproteins (Muc-gel) have shown strong immune-modulating properties toward macrophages in vitro, which are translated in vivo by the dampening of the foreign body response to implantation in mice. Beyond mucin hydrogels, other biomaterials such as sensors, electrodes, and other long-term implants would also benefit from such immune-modulating properties. In this work, we aimed to transfer the bioactivity observed for three-dimensional Muc-gels to the surface of two model materials by immobilizing mucin into thin films (Muc-film) using covalent layer-by-layer assembly.