Over the past decade, dissolving microneedles (DMNs) have emerged as a promising approach for drug delivery to the brain. They are tiny devices designed to penetrate biological barriers, offering a painless method for localized and controlled drug delivery. They are suitable for delivering drugs that are susceptible to degradation when delivered orally. Recently, drug-loaded DMNs have been explored for treating neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). DMNs can deliver drugs efficiently to the brain via the intranasal, transdermal, and intracranial routes. In this review, we discuss the use of DMNs for delivering drugs to the brain, recent technological advances, clinical status, and current challenges related to their translation.
Acne is a skin disease that impacts 9.4% of the world's population. Available treatments for managing acne include retinoid-like drugs, antibiotics, corticosteroids, photo, and radiotherapy. Howevere, the aforementioned treatments have certain limitations such as possibility of developing skin cancer from tetracycline, doxycycline, and corticosteroids, microbial resistance to antibiotics, and deadly side effects, and so forth. Repurposing of existing therapeutics having excellent safety profile can be promising way to treat acne efficiently. The repurposed drugs and phytoceuticals from diverse classes have demonstrated promising effects in treating acne. These repurposed drugs have displayed antiacne effectiveness by targeting single or multiple signaling pathways. Various repurposed therapeutics undergoing clinical trials at different phases demonstrated their safety and efficacy in treating acne. Despite being a very good, safe, and less time-consuming strategy, drug repurposing (DR) faces multiple challenges such as lack of regulatory guidelines, preservation of intellectual property, and clinical validation of claimed therapeutic indication. DR appears to be a viable approach and is likely to offer effective treatment at a reasonable cost in alleviating acne.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most prevalent and emerging neurodegenerative disease and serves as the seventh biggest cause of mortality across the globe. The pathogenesis of AD is linked with multiple hallmarks. The applications of anti-AD therapeutics approved by the FDA have been restricted because of the least permeability, bioavailability, negative effects, and huge cost. Various flavonoids have attenuated the potential pathogenic biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and reduced disease progression. However, the presence of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), limited permeability, bioavailability, and low stability are chief concerns associated with their delivery against AD. Therefore, they have been loaded into various nanoformulations, including PLGA nanoparticles, gold nanoparticles, NLCs, exosomes, cell membrane-coated nanocarriers, and microneedles, to improve brain targeting and enhance therapeutic effects at the site of action. This review focuses on the flavonoid as a potential natural therapeutics against AD. Diverse flavonoids explored to manage AD are discussed with their multiple anti-AD mechanisms. AD pathophysiology, current treatment strategies and its challenges, and the significance of using flavonoids against AD are explained. Moreover, role of NSCs in AD and potential of flavonoids in targeting NSCs is briefed. Challenges in the delivery of flavonoids against AD and diverse ground-breaking nanotechnological strategies employed to deliver these flavonoid-based therapeutics are discussed with manifold case studies. Also, the mechanisms of transport of NCs are explained. Further, flavonoids in clinical trials are briefed with conclusions and future concerns. In conclusion, flavonoid-based therapeutics and their delivery using breakthrough nanotechnological approaches hold promise for successfully managing AD.