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    Getting (Drugs) Under Your Skin - MIT News

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    Adhityavikram Thy
    Using ultrasound waves of two different frequencies, researchers at MIT have developed a new method to enhance the permeability of skin and enable more efficient transdermal drug delivery. The dual-frequency ultrasound generates bubbles under the skin's surface that uniformly abrade the skin when they pop, allowing for drugs to more easily pass through. In tests on pig skin, this method increased absorption of glucose by 10 times and inulin by 4 times compared to single-frequency ultrasound. This noninvasive technique could enable delivery of various drugs through the skin and potentially lead to needle-free vaccination methods.

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    Getting (Drugs) Under Your Skin - MIT News

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    Adhityavikram Thy
    23 views3 pages
    Using ultrasound waves of two different frequencies, researchers at MIT have developed a new method to enhance the permeability of skin and enable more efficient transdermal drug delivery. The dual-frequency ultrasound generates bubbles under the skin's surface that uniformly abrade the skin when they pop, allowing for drugs to more easily pass through. In tests on pig skin, this method increased absorption of glucose by 10 times and inulin by 4 times compared to single-frequency ultrasound. This noninvasive technique could enable delivery of various drugs through the skin and potentially lead to needle-free vaccination methods.

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    Getting (Drugs) Under Your Skin _ MIT News

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    Using ultrasound waves of two different frequencies, researchers at MIT have developed a new method to enhance the permeability of skin and enable more efficient transdermal drug delivery. The dual-frequency ultrasound generates bubbles under the skin's surface that uniformly abrade the skin when they pop, allowing for drugs to more easily pass through. In tests on pig skin, this method increased absorption of glucose by 10 times and inulin by 4 times compared to single-frequency ultrasound. This noninvasive technique could enable delivery of various drugs through the skin and potentially lead to needle-free vaccination methods.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    23 views3 pages

    Getting (Drugs) Under Your Skin - MIT News

    Uploaded by

    Adhityavikram Thy
    Using ultrasound waves of two different frequencies, researchers at MIT have developed a new method to enhance the permeability of skin and enable more efficient transdermal drug delivery. The dual-frequency ultrasound generates bubbles under the skin's surface that uniformly abrade the skin when they pop, allowing for drugs to more easily pass through. In tests on pig skin, this method increased absorption of glucose by 10 times and inulin by 4 times compared to single-frequency ultrasound. This noninvasive technique could enable delivery of various drugs through the skin and potentially lead to needle-free vaccination methods.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    10/2/2014 Getting (drugs) under your skin | MIT News

    http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2012/ultrasound-waves-and-drug-delivery-0914 1/3
    RELATED
    Paper: "Rapid skin permeabilization by the
    simultaneous application of dual-frequency,
    high-intensity ultrasound"
    Langer Laboratory
    Daniel Blankschtein
    Department of Chemical Engineering
    David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer
    Research
    Getting (drugs) under your skin
    Using ultrasound waves, researchers boost skins permeability to drugs.
    Ultrasound waves of two different
    frequencies generate tiny bubbles of
    water on the skins surface. When these
    bubbles pop, the skins surface is lightly
    worn away, allowing drugs to pass
    through the skin more easily.
    Graphic: Carl Schoellhammer
    Using ultrasound waves, MIT engineers have found a way to enhance the permeability of skin
    to drugs, making transdermal drug delivery more efficient. This technology could pave the
    way for noninvasive drug delivery or needle-free vaccinations, according to the researchers.
    This could be used for topical drugs such as steroids cortisol, for example systemic
    drugs and proteins such as insulin, as well as antigens for vaccination, among many other
    things, says Carl Schoellhammer, an MIT graduate student in chemical engineering and one
    of the lead authors of a recent paper on the new system.
    Ultrasound sound waves with frequencies greater than the upper limit of human hearing
    can increase skin permeability by lightly wearing away the top layer of the skin, an effect that
    is transient and pain-free.
    In a paper appearing in the Journal of Controlled Release, the research team found that
    applying two separate beams of ultrasound waves one of low frequency and one of high
    frequency can uniformly boost permeability across a region of skin more rapidly than using
    a single beam of ultrasound waves.
    Senior authors of the paper are Daniel Blankschtein, the Herman P. Meissner 29 Professor
    of Chemical Engineering at MIT, and Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at
    MIT. Other authors include Baris Polat, one of the lead authors and a former doctoral student
    in the Blankschtein and Langer groups, and Douglas Hart, a professor of mechanical
    Anne Trafton, MIT News Office
    September 14, 2012
    10/2/2014 Getting (drugs) under your skin | MIT News
    http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2012/ultrasound-waves-and-drug-delivery-0914 2/3
    engineering at MIT.
    Two frequencies are better than one
    When ultrasound waves travel through a fluid, they create tiny bubbles that move chaotically.
    Once the bubbles reach a certain size, they become unstable and implode. Surrounding fluid
    rushes into the empty space, generating high-speed microjets of fluid that create
    microscopic abrasions on the skin. In this case, the fluid could be water or a liquid
    containing the drug to be delivered.
    In recent years, researchers working to enhance transdermal drug delivery have focused on
    low-frequency ultrasound, because the high-frequency waves dont have enough energy to
    make the bubbles pop. However, those systems usually produce abrasions in scattered,
    random spots across the treated area.
    In the new study, the MIT team found that combining high and low frequencies offers better
    results. The high-frequency ultrasound waves generate additional bubbles, which are popped
    by the low-frequency waves. The high-frequency ultrasound waves also limit the lateral
    movement of the bubbles, keeping them contained in the desired treatment area and creating
    more uniform abrasion, Schoellhammer says.
    Its a very innovative way to improve the technology, increasing the amount of drug that can
    be delivered through the skin and expanding the types of drugs that could be delivered this
    way, says Samir Mitragotri, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of
    California at Santa Barbara, who was not part of the research team.
    The researchers tested their new approach using pig skin and found that it boosted
    permeability much more than a single-frequency system. First, they delivered the ultrasound
    waves, then applied either glucose or inulin (a carbohydrate) to the treated skin. Glucose was
    absorbed 10 times better, and inulin four times better. We think we can increase the
    enhancement of delivery even more by tweaking a few other things, Schoellhammer says.
    Noninvasive drug delivery
    Such a system could be used to deliver any type of drug that is currently given by capsule,
    potentially increasing the dosage that can be administered. It could also be used to deliver
    drugs for skin conditions such as acne or psoriasis, or to enhance the activity of transdermal
    10/2/2014 Getting (drugs) under your skin | MIT News
    http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2012/ultrasound-waves-and-drug-delivery-0914 3/3
    About This Website
    This Website is maintained by the MIT News Office.
    MIT News Office Building 11-400
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
    Topics:
    patches already in use, such as nicotine patches.
    Ultrasound transdermal drug delivery could also offer a noninvasive way for diabetics to
    control their blood sugar levels, through short- or long-term delivery of insulin, the
    researchers say. Following ultrasound treatment, improved permeability can last up to 24
    hours, allowing for delivery of insulin or other drugs over an extended period of time.
    Such devices also hold potential for administering vaccines, according to the researchers. It
    has already been shown that injections into the skin can induce the type of immune response
    necessary for immunization, so vaccination by skin patch could be a needle-free, pain-free
    way to deliver vaccines. This would be especially beneficial in developing countries, since the
    training required to administer such patches would be less intensive than that needed to give
    injections. The Blankschtein and Langer groups are now pursuing this line of research.
    They are also working on a prototype for a handheld ultrasound device, and on ways to
    boost skin permeability even more. Safety tests in animals would be needed before human
    tests can begin. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has previously approved single-
    frequency ultrasound transdermal systems based on Langer and Blankschteins work, so the
    researchers are hopeful that the improved system will also pass the safety tests.
    The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
    Chemistry and chemical engineering Diabetes Drug delivery
    Koch Institute Research Vaccination Vaccines
    Dual-frequency ultrasound Insulin Transdermal Mechanical engineering

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