Flexible Microneedle Patch for Wound Oxygenation and Biofilm Eradication

In the United States alone, chronic non-healing wounds impact more than 6 million people each year and constitute a major social issue. These wounds are further colonized by bacteria developing intricate biofilms which builds up barriers against antibiotics, impede tissue oxygenation (hypoxia) and wound healing. Clinical experts frequently utilize wound debridement and forceful mechanical abrasion procedures to manage and remove biofilms from wound surfaces which are extremely nonselective and painful. Local tissue oxygenation and delivery of antimicrobial species into the wound bed would effectively discriminate the biofilm growth and enhance the host wound healing simultaneously. Henceforth, we have developed a flexible polymer composite microneedle array that can overcome the physicochemical barriers (i.e., bacterial biofilm) present in chronic nonhealing wounds and co-deliver oxygen and bactericidal agents. The polymeric microneedles were developed <i>via</i> a facile UV polymerization process using polyvinylpyrrolidone and calcium peroxide onto a flexible fiber mat substrate for conformable attachment onto different locations of the human body surface. Dry heat autoclave parameters were experimented to sterilize the microneedles effectively without compromising its performance characteristics. The bactericidal properties of these microneedles were studies using gram negative <i>Pseudomonas</i> Aeruginosa as they are commonly observed to form biofilms. Additionally, microneedles exposed to human dermal fibroblast cells exhibited high levels of cytocompatibility and less than 10% apoptosis. Skin irritation and compatibility of the microneedle structures will be experimented on <i>in-vivo</i> animal models. Finally, the efficacy polymeric microneedles to collapse the biofilm formation and wound healing would be investigated in <i>in-vivo</i> rat models after inducing a biofilm on the wound model.