A human hair is about 50 to 70 micrometre thick and a needle having 55 micrometre thick has now been developed by scientists in India. A revolution in the health sector, the micro needles are going to give the patients a painless injection of drugs.
The researchers from electronics and electrical communication engineering at the IIT Kharagpur developed the micro pump and the micro needle, which goes a long way in transdermal drug delivery systems.
The micro needle is operated by using a pressurised controlled micro pump. This pump delivers the drug through the skin. The patient who is administered the injection will not feel any pain. The needles are so small to touch the nerves in the skin to cause any pain.
Tarun Kanti Bhattacharyya (professor with electronics and electrical communication engineering department) who developed the micro needle was quoted as saying that the small needles were effective for any form of transdermal medication.
Bhattacharyya said that the micro needles were made of high strength glassy carbon that is able to withstand the skin resistive forces. The micro pump will increase the flow of the drug molecules in a controlled and precise manner. Moreover, the professor said that the micro-needle and micro-pump have been designed to achieve controlled drug delivery.
Transdermal drug systems are those that are designed to deliver biologically active agents through the skin in a painless process. This has been in use in the US and several other countries for several years.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Department of Science and Technology funded the project. The system was successfully tested in animals. The researchers have filed for a patent in India. They published the work in IEEE and Nature journals.
