Abstract:
Dissolvable microneedles (DMNs) offer significant advantages for vaccine delivery, including pain relief, saving drug dose, no contamination of sharp instruments and autonomous operation. The review introduces the materials, fabrication processes and physical characteristics of DMNs, focusing on its application in delivering various vaccines, such as influenza vaccines, COVID-19 vaccines, viral hepatitis vaccines and the measles-rubella vaccine. Current research demonstrates that DMNs provide significant advantages in enhancing vaccine immunogenicity, boosting vaccine stability and reducing vaccination costs. Yet, challenges confronting the development of DMNs remain in terms of unclear material metabolism, skin safety, difficulties in large-scale production and lack of quality standards and regulations. With the continuous progress of microneedle technique and constant improvement of policies and regulations, DMNs are expected to play an important role in boosting the convenience of vaccination and raising the coverage rate of vaccination, thereby making significant contributions to human health undertakings.