Bioinspired adhesive microneedle patch with gemcitabine encapsulation for pancreatic cancer treatment

Gemcitabine is the standard therapeutic agent for pancreatic cancer (PC), while its side effects eliminating, stromal barrier overcoming, and efficiency improvement are still challenges in clinical application. Herein, inspired by the structures of octopus tentacles, we present a novel adhesive microneedle (MN) patch with gemcitabine encapsulation for the PC treatment. The MN patch with good biocompatibility, flexibility, and drug loading efficiency, was fabricated by using gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) to replicate a top-down mold-based lithography. Benefitting from the octopus tentacles-mimicked surface microstructure, the resultant GelMA hydrogel MN patch is imparted with the ability to adhere to the irregular surfaces of tumors. With the anticancer drug gemcitabine encapsulating in the hydrogel, the MN patch is demonstrated to efficiently penetrate the tumor tissue, release gemcitabine with desired kinetics, and exhibit high anti-tumor efficiency both in vitro and in a mouse orthotopic tumor model. Thus, we believe that chemotheraputics-loaded MN patch will find practically valuable in drug delivery and treatment for hypovascular tumors with stromal barrier in clinical medicine.