a dissolvable polymeric microneedle containing bismuth nanoparticles for combination therapy of melanoma

Aim and background: skin cancer (melanoma or non-melanoma) is one of every three cancers diagnosed. since these lesions appear more on the skin s surface, it is favorable to have an effective treatment system for topical drug delivery and minimizing systemic distribution. in the current work, we use polyvinylpyrrolidone (pvp) based microneedlemediated combination therapy to treat melanoma, containing sorafenib (sfn), a multikinase inhibitor, and bismuth sulfide (bi2s3) nanoparticles (nps) with photothermal activity. methods: for the nps preparation, thioacetamide was dissolved in deionized water (diw) and the prepared solution was added to ethanol and diw. in the next step, bi (no3)3 • 5h2o was dissolved in diw/glycerol under stirring and added to the above solution under constant stirring. the prepared nps and sfn were loaded into pvp, and then the made solution was poured by a solvent-casting method onto a pdms mold followed by centrifugation to fill the microneedle cavities and left to dry in a desiccator. results and discussion: according to the results fabricated dissolvable microneedle patches have enough strength to cross the skin barriers and so can deliver the loaded nps and sfn right into the tumor for combination therapy of melanoma. after nir irradiation in the tumor place, the temperature increased enough due to the photothermal ability of nps which were delivered intact into the tumor. the created temperature has the potential to eradicate the cancer cells. conclusion: we demonstrated the fabricated polymeric mn patches have desirable physicochemical properties with enough mechanical strength for skin insertion and biocompatibility