Obesity is a serious epidemic health problem that can cause many other diseases including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Current approaches to combat obesity suffer from low effectiveness and adverse side effects. Here, a new self-administrable and minimally invasive transdermal drug delivery strategy for home-based long-term treatment of obesity and other diseases is developed. Specifically, ultrathin, core-shelled, and lance-shaped polymeric drug reservoirs (micro-lances [MLs]) are readily fabricated by a thermal pressing molding method and totally implanted into subcutaneous fat by lancing through the skin. Using a diet-induced obese mouse model, it is shown that the development of obesity and associated metabolic disorders is effectively inhibited by applying therapeutic core-shelled MLs once every 2 weeks. The outstanding therapeutic effects are attributable to highly localized and biphasic drug release, as well as combination therapy based on browning transformation of white fat and enhanced insulin sensitivity.
Keyphrases
- type diabetes
- insulin resistance
- weight loss
- metabolic syndrome
- drug delivery
- high fat diet induced
- adipose tissue
- drug release
- combination therapy
- weight gain
- cardiovascular disease
- minimally invasive
- mouse model
- public health
- bariatric surgery
- glycemic control
- systematic review
- randomized controlled trial
- healthcare
- skeletal muscle
- cancer therapy
- body mass index
- cardiovascular risk factors
- adverse drug
- coronary artery disease
- soft tissue
- smoking cessation
- wound healing