Development of hydrogel-forming microneedles for transdermal delivery of albendazole from liquid reservoir

Albendazole (ABZ) is an anthelmintic agent from the benzimidazole group, known as the broad-spectrum antiparasitic drug. ABZ is commonly used to treat human intestinal and systemic infections. Orally administered ABZ tends to have limited efficacy due to its poor solubility. In order to enhance its delivery to the therapeutic target, polyvinyl alcohol-based hydrogel-forming microneedles (HFMs) was developed. HFMs can effectively deliver drugs loaded in the reservoir through the transdermal route with fewer side effects and longer therapeutic duration. In addition, to enhance ABZ's solubility, the drug can be loaded as a liquid reservoir using water-miscible solvents, which will effectively enhance the solubility of ABZ, resulting in higher bioavailability. In this study, HFMs was successfully developed with high swelling abilities, more than 400%. Moreover, the penetration result showed HFMs could penetrate up to 63% into the skin with only a 7.14% of height decrease. The skin integrity test also showed HFMs permeation into the skin, causing no changes in skin integrity after 24 h of application. Incorporated with the liquid reservoir, the ex vivo permeation test showed that the cumulative amount of ABZ permeated through the skin was about 971.23 ± 11.77 µg/cm². In conclusion, this innovation has a huge potential to overcome the limitations of ABZ in oral preparations and potentially enhance its therapeutic effect through the transdermal route.