The field of microneedle research has been very active in recent years, as they are being
studied for a wide range of active pharmaceutical ingredients (including macromolecules)
and therapeutic indications. With the help of electronic databases PubMed and ScienceDirect
we studied the field of transdermal drug delivery with microneedles. We reviewed different
time periods and, due to the large number of articles, we focused on the period of the last
five years, i.e. from 2018 to 2022. A significant increase was observed during this period
with 163 research articles and 157 review articles published. In the final set of articles for
more detailed analysed, we included 49 research articles and an additional 6 articles on the
topic of 3D printing. As observed, the most studied active pharmaceutical ingredients for
incorporation into microneedles were amphotericin B, methotrexate, insulin and
cabotegravir sodium. As for therapeutic group, the most often the group of drugs for the
systemic treatment of viral infections was presented, i.e. in five articles. Treatment and
prevention of human immune deficiency virus is considered the most frequently chosen
indication, which was studied in five articles. Dissolving microneedles have been been
studied the most and were represented in 35 articles. It should be pointed out that mentioned
microneedles were most often prepared by the micromolding method. In most cases,
microneedles were prepared from a formulation that contained one or more polymers (the
most represented polymers in the formulations were hyaluronic acid and polyvinyl
pyrrolidone) and other excipients. When studying the field of transdermal drug delivery with
microneedles in conjunction with 3D printing, the researchers most often chose the
stereolithography technique, while with 3D printing they often made hollow microneedles.
We found that microneedles were most often valued as part of a set evaluation of mechanical
properties, insertion test, dissolution test, permeability and pharmacokinetic studies and skin
irritation tests. We reviewed the area of patents for the selected field for the last 15 years in
the SIPO-DS and Escapenet databases. We found that 42 % patent applications/patents were
published in the last five years, i.e. from 2018 to 2022. In the future microneedles could
contribute to improved treatment of many diseases.
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