美国乔治亚理工学院Mark R. Prausnitz研究小组发现，STAR颗粒可增强局部药物和疫苗的递送。这一研究成果在线发表于3月9日的《自然—医学》。
药物向皮肤的递送高度受到角质屏障层的限制。在本研究中，研究人员研发了名为STAR颗粒的星形颗粒，其显著提高了皮肤渗透性。STAR颗粒是由氧化铝或不锈钢制成的毫米级颗粒，具有微米级突起，旨在角质层上形成微小的孔。
在对猪皮肤进行温和局部应用10 s后，针对皮肤病的药物和大分子（包括那些不能局部给药的大分子）其传递增加了1-2个数量级。在局部5-氟尿嘧啶治疗的小鼠中，使用STAR颗粒可提高药物抑制皮下黑色素瘤的生长并具有延长生存期的功效。
此外，破伤风类毒素疫苗使用STAR颗粒向小鼠局部给药产生的免疫应答与肌内注射疫苗一样强，尽管局部给药的剂量要比肌内疫苗给药高。当将STAR颗粒用于人类受试者皮肤时，其具有良好的耐受性，并能有效产生微孔。
STAR颗粒给药为增加药物和疫苗向皮肤的输送提供了一种简单、低成本且耐受良好的方法，并且可以扩大局部给药化合物的范围。
附：英文原文
Title: STAR particles for enhanced topical drug and vaccine delivery
Author: Andrew R. Tadros, Andrey Romanyuk, Ian C. Miller, Andrea Santiago, Richard K. Noel, Laura OFarrell, Gabriel A. Kwong, Mark R. Prausnitz
Issue&Volume: 2020-03-09
Abstract: Drug delivery to the skin is highly constrained by the stratum corneum barrier layer1. Here, we developed star-shaped particles, termed STAR particles, to dramatically increase skin permeability. STAR particles are millimeter-scale particles made of aluminum oxide or stainless steel with micron-scale projections designed to create microscopic pores across the stratum corneum. After gentle topical application for 10s to porcine skin ex vivo, delivery of dermatological drugs and macromolecules, including those that cannot be given topically, was increased by 1 to 2 orders of magnitude. In mice treated with topical 5-fluorouracil, use of STAR particles increased the efficacy of the drug in suppressing the growth of subcutaneous melanoma tumors and prolonging survival. Moreover, topical delivery of tetanus toxoid vaccine to mice using STAR particles generated immune responses that were at least as strong as delivery of the vaccine by intramuscular injection, albeit at a higher dose for topical than intramuscular vaccine administration. STAR particles were well tolerated and effective at creating micropores when applied to the skin of human participants. Use of STAR particles provides a simple, low-cost and well-tolerated method for increasing drug and vaccine delivery to the skin and could widen the range of compounds that can be topically administered.
DOI: 10.1038/s41591-020-0787-6
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0787-6
Nature Medicine：《自然—医学》，创刊于1995年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：87.241
官方网址：https://www.nature.com/nm/
投稿链接：https://mts-nmed.nature.com/cgi-bin/main.plex
本期文章：《自然—医学》：Online/在线发表
