Microarray patch resources

For more than a decade, PATH has assessed and catalyzed microarray patch (MAP) transdermal technologies that have the potential to improve access to and delivery of a broad range of vaccines and essential medicines in low-resource settings. As a disruptive technology, MAPs could have a transformative impact on health.

Microarray patches, also known as microneedle patches, consist of microscopic projections that are applied to the body like a small bandage, penetrating the skin’s outermost layer to deliver a drug or vaccine to the top layers of the skin.

MAPs have shown the potential for:

• Increased thermostability: reducing cold chain burdens and facilitating access to remote areas.
• Ease-of-use: facilitating self-administration or delivery by lesser-trained health care workers.
• Needle-free delivery: eliminating the risk of needlestick injuries typically associated with needle and syringe delivery.
• Increased coverage and reduced programmatic costs: through enabling alternative delivery scenarios such as supplemental immunization activities.

Versions of this map can be downloaded here.

MICROARRAY PATCH CATEGORY RESOURCES

Technology overview

• Technology update: dissolvable microneedle patches for vaccine delivery. (Rogers, 2019) Read here.
• Microneedle patches for vaccination in developing countries. (Arya, 2016) Read here.
• Potential use of microarray patches for vaccine delivery in low- and middle- income countries. (Peyraud, 2019) Read here.
• Advancing Transdermal Drug Delivery: PATH’s Microarray Patch Center of Excellence aims to accelerate transdermal patch technology for public health needs. Read here.

Immune response and skin immunology

• Characteristics of immune induction by transcutaneous vaccination using dissolving microneedle patches in mice. (Hirobi, 2021) Read here.
• Early immune responses in skin and lymph node after skin delivery of Toll-like receptor agonists in neonatal and adult pigs. (Vreman, 2021) Read here.
• Enhancing humoral immunity via sustained-release implantable microneedle patch vaccination. (Boopathy, 2019) Read here.
• Dissolvable carboxymethyl cellulose/polyvinylpyrrolidone microneedle arrays for transdermal delivery of Amphotericin B to treat cutaneous leishmaniasis. (Zare MR, 2021) Read here.
• Langerin negative dendritic cells promote potent CD8+ T-cell priming by skin delivery of live adenovirus vaccine microneedle arrays. (Bachy, 2013) Read here.
• Skin immunisation activates an innate lymphoid cell-monocyte axis regulating CD8+ effector recruitment to mucosal tissues. (Zaric, 2019) Read here.
• Skin vaccination with live virus vectored microneedle arrays induce long lived CD8(+) T cell memory. (Becker, 2015) Read here.

Usability and end-user studies

• End-user acceptability study of the nanopatchTM; a microarray patch (MAP) for child immunization in low and middle-income countries. (Guillermet, 2019) Read here.

HEALTH AREA RESOURCES

Contraception

• Long-acting reversible contraception by effervescent microneedle patch. (Li, 2019) Read here.
• Microarray patches: Breaking down the barriers to contraceptive care and HIV prevention for women across the globe. (Paredes, 2021) Read here.
• Silk Fibroin Microneedle Patches for the Sustained Release of Levonorgestrel. (Yavuz, 2020) Read here.

COVID-19

• Dissolvable microneedle patches to enable increased access to vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 and future pandemic outbreaks (O'Shea, 2021). Read here.
• Induction of humoral and cellular immunity by intradermal delivery of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein using dissolvable microneedles. (Kuwentrai, 2021) Read here.
• Microarray patches enable the development of skin-targeted vaccines against COVID-19. (Korkmaz, 2021) Read here.

Dengue virus

• A chimeric dengue virus vaccine candidate delivered by high density microarray patches protects against infection in mice. (Choo, 2021). Read here.
• Efficient Delivery of Dengue Virus Subunit Vaccines to the Skin by Microprojection Arrays. (Muller, 2019) Read here.

Diabetes

• Fabrication of rapidly separable microneedles for transdermal delivery of metformin on diabetic rats. (Liu, 2021) Read here.

Ebola

• Intradermal immunization by Ebola virus GP subunit vaccines using microneedle patches protects mice against lethal EBOV challenge. (Liu, 2018) Read here.

Hepatitis B

• Feasibility of hepatitis B vaccination by microneedle patch: Cellular and humoral immunity studies in rhesus macaques. (Choi, 2019). Read here.
• Skin immunization with third-generation hepatitis B surface antigen using microneedles. (Nguyen, 2019) Read here.

HIV and HIV PrEP

• Acceptability of Microarray Patches for Delivery of HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Among Women and Health Care Providers in South Africa. (PATH, 2016) Read here.
• Design, formulation and evaluation of novel dissolving microarray patches containing a long-acting rilpivirine nanosuspension. (Mc Crudden, 2018) Read here.
• Etravirine-loaded dissolving microneedle arrays for long-acting delivery. (Rojekar, 2021) Read here.
• Long-lived tissue resident HIV-1 specific memory CD8+ T cells are generated by skin immunization with live virus vectored microneedle arrays. (Zaric, 2017) Read here.
• Microarray patches: Breaking down the barriers to contraceptive care and HIV prevention for women across the globe. (Paredes, 2021) Read here.
• Modelling the intradermal delivery of microneedle array patches for long-acting antiretrovirals using PBPK. (Rajoli, 2019) Read here.
• Vaginal Applicator Development for Delivery of Microarray Patches Containing Rilpivirine for HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis. (PATH, 2016) Read here

Human papillomavirus

• Immune response and reactogenicity of an unadjuvanted intradermally delivered human papillomavirus vaccine using a first generation Nanopatch™ in rhesus macaques: An exploratory, pre-clinical feasibility assessment. (Meyer, 2019) Read here.
• Prophylactic HPV vaccine microarray patch: Target product profile. Draft. (PATH, 2020) Read here.

Influenza

• An economic model assessing the value of microneedle patch delivery of the seasonal influenza vaccine. (Lee, 2015) Read here.
• Clinical study and stability assessment of a novel transcutaneous influenza vaccination using a dissolving microneedle patch.(Hirobe,
  2015) Read here.
• Formulation approach that enables the coating of a stable influenza vaccine on a transdermal microneedle patch. (Ameri, 2021) Read here.
• Opportunities and challenges in delivering influenza vaccine by microneedle patch. (Jacoby, 2015) Read here.
• Safety, tolerability, acceptability and immunogenicity of an influenza vaccine delivered to human skin by a novel high-density microprojection array patch (Nanopatch™). (Fernando, 2018) Read here.
• Safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of influenza vaccination with a high-density microarray patch: Results from a randomized, controlled phase I clinical trial. (Forster, 2020) Read here.
• The Safety, Immunogenicity and Acceptability of Inactivated Influenza Vaccine Delivered by Microneedle Patch: a Randomized, Partially Blind, Placebo-Controlled Phase 1 Trial. (Rouphael, 2017) Read here.

Malaria

• Artemether and lumefantrine dissolving microneedle patches with improved pharmacokinetic performance and antimalarial efficacy in mice infected with Plasmodium yoelii. ( Volpe-Zanutto, 2021) Read here.
• Assessing the Technical and Programmatic Feasibility of a Microarray Patch for Intradermal Delivery of Primaquine to Treat P. vivax. (PATH, 2017) Read here.

Measles Rubella

• A Microneedle Patch for Measles and Rubella Vaccination Is Immunogenic and Protective in Infant Rhesus Macaques. (Joyce, 2018) Read here.
• A microneedle patch for measles and rubella vaccination: a game changer for achieving elimination. (Prausnitz, 2020) Read here.
• Formulation development and improved stability of a combination measles and rubella live-viral vaccine dried for use in the nanopatch microneedle delivery system. Read here.
• Measles and rubella microarray array patches to increase vaccination coverage and achieve measles and rubella elimination in Africa. (Moss, 2019) Read here.
• Measles-rubella microarray patch (MR–MAP) target product profile. (WHO, UNICEF 2019) Read here.

Neonatal and infant health

• Transdermal delivery of gentamicin using dissolving microneedle arrays for potential neonatal sepsis. (González-Vázquez, 2017) Read here.

Polio

• High-density microprojection array delivery to rat skin of low doses of trivalent inactivated poliovirus vaccine elicits potent neutralising antibody responses. (Muller, 2017) Read here.
• Inactivated polio vaccination using a microneedle patch is immunogenic in the rhesus macaque. (Edens, 2015) Read here.
• Skin delivery of trivalent Sabin inactivated poliovirus vaccine using dissolvable microneedle patches induces neutralizing antibodies. (Donadei, 2019) Read here.

Rabies

• Rabies vaccine microarray patch: Target product profile. Draft. (PATH, 2020) Read here.

PATH co-chairs the Delivery Technologies Working Group within WHO’s Immunization Practices Advisory Committee (IPAC). Its mission is to maximize impact of immunization products for public-sector use, including combination vaccine/device products such as MAPs and other alternative delivery technologies. A list of resources related to vaccine delivery technologies, as well as materials developed by the Delivery Technologies Working Group, are available through TechNet-21, a global network of immunization professionals.