Infusion patch: Make intravenous drip as convenient as using a Band-Aid

In the medical field, intravenous infusion, as a common way of drug administration, has long played an important role in the treatment of diseases. However, with the continuous development of medical technology, people have never stopped pursuing more convenient and comfortable drug administration methods. Recently, a research team from Zhejiang University has brought an innovative achievement - a patch-type infusion patch, which is expected to completely change the limitations of traditional intravenous infusion and make "drip" as simple and convenient as using a Band-Aid.

Limitations of intravenous fluid administration

Intravenous infusion, commonly known as "saline drip" or "drip", is a drug delivery technique that delivers liquid drugs directly into the blood through venous puncture. Its action process mainly relies on gravity, and the pre-prepared liquid drugs need to be slowly and continuously dripped into the patient's veins. Although intravenous infusion can take effect quickly and maintain a relatively stable blood drug concentration, it also has many limitations.

First, intravenous infusion requires the assistance of professional medical staff. Patients often have to wait for a long time in the hospital, with limited mobility and serious impact on their quality of life. For example, in the early stages of treatment, patients with acute myeloid leukemia need to receive medication through conventional intravenous infusion for 72 hours. Long-term infusion not only causes swelling and bruising in the patient's arm, but also causes physical and mental pain to the patient.

Secondly, some adverse reactions may occur during intravenous infusion, such as phlebitis, infection, allergy, etc., which increases the treatment risk of patients. In addition, for some patients who need long-term infusion treatment, frequent venous puncture can also damage blood vessels and affect the health of blood vessels.

Micro-infusion bottle sustained-release drug technology

In order to solve the limitations of traditional intravenous infusion, the research team of Zhejiang University proposed an innovative solution - the infusion patch. This miniature "infusion bottle" can be easily attached to the skin like a Band-Aid to achieve stable delivery of large doses of drugs.

How it works

The design of the patch is inspired by sustained-release capsules and combined with osmotic pump technology. It is small in size and divided into a drug cavity and a water cavity. The drug is directly delivered into the body through microneedles. The key to the technology is to use the osmotic pressure difference between the drug cavity and the water cavity to push the drug into the patient's body at a steady rate.

Specifically, the patch can be loaded with more than 2 grams of drugs. It is divided into two layers, the drug cavity and the water cavity. The drug cavity is connected to three hollow microneedles with a length of less than 2 mm and a diameter of about 0.2 mm. When taking the medicine, the special solution is injected into the water cavity through the syringe equipped in the drug-device box. Relying on the osmotic pressure difference between the drug cavity and the water cavity, the solvent enters the drug cavity to dissolve the drug, and achieves steady-speed, minimally invasive drug delivery through the hollow microneedles.

Advantages and application prospects

The patch-type infusion patch has many significant advantages. First, it is lightweight and portable. Patients can stick it directly on the skin like a Band-Aid, without having to stay in the hospital for a long time, and can move more freely. Second, this infusion patch can be loaded with different drugs and can achieve sustained and stable drug release. The platform technology has been verified in a variety of animal models for the long-term stable controlled release of large doses of drugs (such as anti-tumor drugs, hypoglycemic drugs, antibiotics, etc.).

In addition, thanks to the solid-state tableting drug loading process, the stability of small molecule, peptide and protein drugs at room temperature has also been significantly improved, allowing the drugs to be stored and transported at room temperature. During the clinical trial, the infusion patch received a very good response from volunteers, and almost all healthy subjects chose the "infusion patch", believing that it is more convenient, applicable, and safer to tolerate than traditional intravenous drips or intramuscular injections.

The emergence of the patch-type infusion patch is expected to completely change the limitations of traditional intravenous infusion and bring patients a more convenient and comfortable treatment experience. In the future, with the further development and application of this technology, we have reason to believe that it will play an important role in the treatment of major diseases such as tumors, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and diabetes, and may even become the preferred drug delivery method for the treatment of common diseases.