Topical Drug Delivery to Skin Using STAR Particles
Translational Medicine and Bioengineering Conference
2017
2nd Bioengineering & Translational Medicine Conference
General Submissions
Gene and Drug Delivery
Sunday, October 29, 2017 - 2:30pm to 2:45pm
STAR particles can be incorporated into skin creams, as an inert formulation additive, and applied to the skin similarly to conventional skin products. Because of their simple application method, STAR particles require no training prior to use and can be applied to any size skin surface area. Additionally, STAR particles are fabricated from low-cost, commercially available and safe materials.
To date, STAR particles have been fabricated out of biocompatible materials, such as stainless steel, and validated in excised skin, in vivo animal experiments and initial studies in human subjects. In ex vivo permeability studies, STAR particles dramatically increased delivery of topically applied model drugs with a wide range of physiochemical properties (e.g., molecular weight between 500 to 20,000 Da and partition coefficient, logP, between -3.1 to 2.2). In animal studies, skin permeability to model compounds was similarly increased, and skin treated with STAR particles showed no signs of irritation, erythema or bleeding. Application of STAR particles to human subjects was also well tolerated, with subjects only reporting a mild tingling sensation during STAR particle application. These results indicate that STAR particles may be used to safely increase topical drug delivery and thereby enable new dermatological therapies.