Promising role of microneedles in therapeutic and biomedical applications

Microneedles have emerged as one of the most advanced and sophisticated transdermal drug delivery system, offering many benefits over other conventional drug delivery systems, and overcoming major limitations like first-pass metabolism, patient noncompliance, limited bioavailability, inadequate absorption, etc. These micron-sized devices aim to increase the efficiency and practicality of delivery of drugs, vaccine formulations, and other therapeutic agents across the skin, along with extraction of biofluids for diagnostic purpose. Numerous studies have been conducted by researchers, and it has been reported that the use of microneedles have been broadened to a significant number of biomedical disciplines, including the long-term management of diseases and conditions, theranostic purposes, site-specific drug delivery, immunobiological administration, disease evaluations and diagnostics, and cosmetics skincare products. The focus of the present review article is to offer a basic overview, different types, materials and fabrication techniques, role of microneedles in therapeutic and biomedical applications, and many commercially available microneedle-based products.