Revolutionizing Oral Cancer Theranostics Through Microneedle Technology: A Comprehensive Insight

Abstract

Microneedles are an intricately designed technology that aids in transdermal therapy where vaccines, drug molecules, genes, antibodies and protein compounds can be delivered locally to a part of tissue. They are highly beneficial in disease diagnostics as they are simple to use, can be self-administered, non-invasive, heal faster and provide painless treatment especially in disease conditions like cancers. Animal and human trials that explore the use of microneedle in other anatomical sites like the oral mucosa are limited. The oral mucosa houses a complex barrier mechanism with numerous commensal microbiomes that regulate the immune mechanism locally. Disease conditions like oral dysplasia affect the entire epithelial cell component and so drug delivery has to penetrate deep below the epithelial layers into the underlying connective tissue with minimal loss of drug along the path delivery. Microneedles are designed with a blend of hypodermic needles laid out on transdermal patches with a height ranging from 25 to 2,000 um and an external diameter of 30 um. Microneedles have been tested for their efficiency in drug delivery for oral cancer in a number of in vitro and in vivo studies and they have provided effective drug deposition with reduction in the tumorigenic potential. Microneedles also can be used in disease detection when they are fabricated as a biosensor. The current review explores the microneedle technology, its types, methods of fabrication, and their applications in oral cancer theranostics.