New skin patch could deliver cancer medication without pain in one minute

Researchers have developed a new skin patch that could efficiently deliver medication to attack melanoma cancer cells.

The study is an advance toward developing a vaccine to treat melanoma.

Our patch has a unique chemical coating and mode of action that allows it to be aplied and removed from the skin in just a minute while still delivering a therapeutic dose of durgs, said one of the researcher.

Researchers have designed a new pH-responsive polymer with 2 parts.

The first part containes amine groups that are positively charged at the pH at which they make the microneedles, but that becomes neutral at the pH of the skin, the researcher explained.

The second part contains carboxylic acid groups with no charge when the microneedles are made, but which become negatively charged when the patch is applied to the skin. 

So, there is an overall change in charge from positive to negative, he said.

While sticky negative-positive -negative layers are still required for layer-by-layer (LbL) film construction, the team's patch quickly switches to repelling negative-negative-negative layers when placed on the skin. After the microneedles pierce the skin and implant the LBL drug film beneath the skin, the drug leaves the patch quickly.

Using chicken ovalbumin as a model antigen, the team vaccinated mice with their patches and compared the results with intramuscular and subcutaneous injections.

The microneedle treatment produced nine times the antibody level as compared to intramuscular injections ( e.g. used for flu shots) and 160 times the antibody level compared to subcutaneous injections ( e.g., used for measles vaccines). They also saw efficient immune activation in surgical samples of human skin.

Our patch technology could be used to deliver vaccines to combat different infectious diseases, he said. But, we're excited by the possibility that the patch is another tool in the oncologists' arsenal against cancer, specifically melanoma, he continued.

To make melanoma vaccine, the researchers developed an antigen that includes a marker frequently over-expressed by melanoma cells, as well as an adjuvant, which creates ageneralised danger signal for the immune system and boosts its response. Then, they tested different LbL microneedle film arrangements of antigen and adjuvant in immune cells derived from mice.

From these experiments, the researchers identified the optimal LbL microneedle structure that appears to activate immune cells directly accessible in the skin. In living mice, these cells could, in turn, migrate to the lymphatic system and recruit other immune cells to attack the melanoma tumour. The researchers now plan to test patches on melanoma tumours in mice.

We're using low-cost chemistry and a simple fabrication scheme to transform vaccination, he said. Ultimately, we want to get a device approved and on the market, he added.

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New skin patch may help reduce obesity

Scientists have developed a new type of skin patch that may help reduce bulging tummy fats and obesity by delivering drugs that turn energy-storing white fat into energy-burning brown fat.
This innovative approach developed by scientists, reduced weight gain in mice on a high fat diet and their fat mass by more than 30 per cent over four weeks. 

The new type of skin patch contains hundreds of micro- needles, each thinner than a human hair, which are loaded with the drug Beta-3 adrenergic receptor agonist or another drug called thyroid hormone T3 triiodothyronine. 

When the patch is pressed into the skin for about two minutes, these micro-needles become embedded in the skin and detach from the patch, which can then be removed. 

As the needles degrade, the drug molecules then slowly diffuse to the energy-storing white fat underneath the skin layer, turning them into energy-burning brown fats. 

Brown fats are found in babies and they help to keep the baby warm by burning energy. As humans grow older, the amount of brown fats lessens and is replaced with visceral white fats. 

Published in the journal, this approach could help address the worldwide obesity problem without resorting to surgical operations or oral medication which could require large dosages and could have serious side effects. 

"With the embedded microneedles in the skin of the mice, the surrounding fats started browning in five days, which helped to increase the energy expenditure of the mice, leading to a reduction in body fat gain," said the scientist.

Obesity which results from an excessive accumulation of fat is a major health risk factor for various diseases, including heart disease, stroke and type-2 diabetes. 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that 1.9 billion adults in the world were overweight in 2016 with 650 million of them being obese, researchers said. 

"What we aim to develop is a painless patch that everyone could use easily, is unobtrusive and yet affordable," said the scientist. 

"Most importantly, our solution aims to use a persons own body fats to burn more energy, which is a natural process in babies," the scientist said. 

The treated mice also had significantly lower blood cholesterol and fatty acids levels compared to the untreated mice.

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Pain-free skin patch to automate diabetes management

Untreated, diabetes can result in both vascular and nerve damage throughout the body, with debilitating impacts on the eyes, feet, kidneys, and heart. Global incidence of all types of diabetes is about 285 million people, of which 90 per cent have Type-2 diabetes. 

 There is good news for diabetics as researchers have developed a pain-free skin patch containing dissolvable compounds that responds to blood chemistry to manage glucose automatically.

For millions of people with type 2 diabetes, ongoing vigilance over the amount of sugar, or glucose, in their blood is the key to health. A finger prick before mealtimes and maybe an insulin injection is an uncomfortable but necessary routine.

The new study, showed that the biochemical formula of mineralised compounds in the patch responds to sugar levels for days at a time.

In a proof-of-concept study performed with mice, the researchers showed that the biochemically formulated patch of dissolvable micro-needles can make the management of Type-2 diabetes much easier.
 
“This experimental approach could be a way to take advantage of the fact that persons with Type-2 diabetes can still produce some insulin,” said a researcher.

“A weekly micro-needle patch application would also be less complicated and painful than routines that require frequent blood testing,” a researcher said.

The base of the experimental patch is material called alginate, a gum-like natural substance extracted from brown algae.

 

It is mixed with therapeutic agents and poured into a microneedle form to make the patch.

“Alginate is a pliable material — it is soft, but not too soft,” said a lead researcher.

“It has to be able to poke the dermis, and while not a commonly used material for needles, it seems to work pretty well in this case,” the researcher said.

The team infused the alginate with a formula of biochemical particles that stimulates the body’s own insulin production when needed and curtails that stimulation when normal blood sugar concentration is reached.

The responsive delivery system of the patch can meet the body’s need for days instead of being used up all at once, the study said.

Insulin is a hormone made in the pancreas and secreted into the bloodstream to regulate glucose in response to food intake.

It is needed to move glucose from the bloodstream into cells where the sugar can be converted to energy or stored.

In Type-1 diabetes, usually diagnosed in children and young adults, the body does not make insulin at all.

Type-2 diabetes, which can be diagnosed at any age but more commonly as an adult, progressively lessens the body’s ability to make or use insulin.

Untreated, diabetes can result in both vascular and nerve damage throughout the body, with debilitating impacts on the eyes, feet, kidneys, and heart.

Global incidence of all types of diabetes is about 285 million people, of which 90 per cent have Type-2 diabetes.

Many require insulin therapy that is usually given by injection just under the skin in amounts that are calculated according to the deficit in naturally generated insulin in the blood. Insulin therapy is not managed well in half of all cases.

The alternate therapy approach developed by these researchers may eventually make management of Type-2 diabetes a lot more convenient.

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This Needle-Covered Patch Dissolves Excess Body Fat Wherever You Stick It

A skin patch that effectively melts excess body fat wherever you decide to apply it sounds too good to be true, but this thing actually exists, thanks to new research.

The medicated patch uses an array of skin-piercing micro-needles to deliver nano-particles of drugs to the body, and while it hasn't yet been tested on humans, trials with mice show it reduces fat by as much as 20 percent in treated areas.

Developed by researchers, the skin patch doesn't just hold promise (and potential riches) for the cosmetics industry – it could one day help us to fight conditions like obesity and diabetes.

The way it works is to do with how our bodies store fat, which largely comes down to two kinds of fat cells: white fat and brown fat.

Brown fat is often thought of as 'good fat' because it readily breaks down and produces heat – which is why newborns have a lot of it, given they need help regulating their body temperature.

 Unfortunately for grown-ups, we don't have as much brown fat, and are instead saddled with ungainly deposits of white fat around our bodies, which is used for long-term energy storage, but not so easily burned.

In recent years, there's been a huge amount of scientific effort focused around bridging the gap between these two kinds of fat – or, more accurately, learning how to convert energy-storing white fat into energy-burning brown fat.

 A number of studies have shown success in triggering the transformation – sometimes called browning – but from a health care perspective, there's a problem.

"There are several clinically available drugs that promote browning, but all must be given as pills or injections," says one of the team.

"This exposes the whole body to the drugs, which can lead to side effects such as stomach upset, weight gain, and bone fractures. Our skin patch appears to alleviate these complications by delivering most drugs directly to fat tissue."

 This is possible due to the patch's grid of microscopic needles, which deliver browning chemicals under the skin wherever white fat is being stored.

 In their study, the researchers used two different browning drugs, rosiglitazone (aka Avandia) and a chemical called CL316243, which has previously been shown to brown white fat in mice.
 
First up, the drugs are encased in nanoparticles, each measuring about 250 nanometres (nm) in diameter – for reference, a human hair is approximately 100,000 nm wide, so we're talking really, really small.

 These nano-particles are then deployed in the patch, and when the micro-needles painlessly pierce the skin, the nano-particles are delivered into the tissue directly under the patch, where they dissolve.

 "The nano-particles were designed to effectively hold the drug and then gradually collapse, releasing it into nearby tissue in a sustained way instead of spreading the drug throughout the body quickly," explains one of the researchers.

In experiments with obese mice, patches were applied every three days for a total of four weeks. Treated mice had two patches applied on different sides of their bodies: one containing a browning drug, and the other containing empty nanoparticles.

 The results showed that the patches containing either rosiglitazone or CL316243 produced a 20 percent reduction in fat on the animals' treated side (compared to the empty nanoparticles patch).

 They also showed lower fasting blood glucose levels than control animals who were also only given patches containing no browning drugs.

In lean mice the treatment also offered benefits, increasing animals' oxygen consumption compared to untreated controls.

 Of course, there's no guarantee humans wearing the patch would see the same results, but it's another promising step forward as scientists gradually uncover the mechanisms that control brown and white fat production.

 The team are currently researching which drugs, or which combination of drugs, might work best to enable this kind of localised browning – as it's possible the right chemical might even be able to improve on the already impressive 20 percent fat reduction they've seen so far.

 "Many people will no doubt be excited to learn that we may be able to offer a noninvasive alternative to liposuction for reducing love handles," says a researcher.

 "What's much more important is that our patch may provide a safe and effective means of treating obesity and related metabolic disorders such as diabetes."

 While at present there are no firm plans to release the patch for use by people, it's quite possible that something like this might become available in the future once more a lot more research and safety tests are completed.

 Until that fateful day, there's always fish oil.

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Skin patches may replace blood diagnostic test

Scientists have, for the first time, designed and successfully tested a small skin patch that detected malaria proteins in live mice and could replace the traditional blood diagnostic test.

Drawing blood and testing it is standard practise for many medical diagnostics. As a less painful alternative, scientists are developing skin patches that could one day replace the syringe.

In the The American Chemical Society (ACS)'s journal Analytical Chemistry, a team of researchers report they have designed and successfully tested, for the first time, a small skin patch that detected malaria proteins in live mice.

It could someday be adapted for use in humans to diagnose other diseases, too, researchers said.
Simon R Corrie and colleagues note that while blood is rich with molecular clues that tell a story about a person's health, withdrawing it is often painful.

It also requires trained personnel and expensive lab equipment and facilities for analysis. These factors don't lend themselves to patient compliance or accessibility in resource-limited places.

Scientists have been trying to address these hurdles by developing diagnostic patches that are covered on one side with thousands of microscopic, hollow needles that can sample fluid in the skin.

But so far, these devices have only been able to test for one compound at a time. However, many diseases can be diagnosed more reliably by detecting multiple bio-markers. Corrie's team wanted to design a new patch that could meet this need.

The researchers optimised their device so it could capture two bio-markers for the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, which kills more than 1 million people every year.

To test it, they injected malaria proteins into the bloodstream of live mice and applied the patch to their skin. The patch successfully captured the proteins in the skin tissue.

Such devices, they conclude, could be used in the future to diagnose malaria and other infectious diseases in a less painful way.

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