Hyaluronic Acid Encapsulated CuS Gel-Mediated Near-Infrared Laser Induced Controllable Transdermal Drug Delivery for Sustained Therapy

Efficient transdermal drug delivery to the circulatory system of body has great benefit compared to traditional needle injection and oral administration approach due to avoiding the emotional trauma and pain for the patients. Disrupting the stratum corneum (SC) is crucial for successful transdermal drug delivery, and thermal ablation is emerging as the advanced strategy for it. Herein, hyaluronic acid (HA) encapsulated CuS (HA-CuS) nanoparticles with excellent biocompatibility and remarkable photothermal translation efficacy were synthesized for transdermal drug delivery. The transdermal cargo delivery capability of the proposed HA-CuS gel was comprehensively investigated. Simply controlling the NIR laser irradiation power or time enabled controllable translocation of the model biomacromolecule of bovine serum albumin (BSA) into skin in vivo. Furthermore, the feasibility of the HA-CuS-mediated transdermal insulin delivery for type 1 diabetes therapy of nude mice was investigated. It presented sustained and efficient transdermal insulin delivery to decrease the blood glucose level for longer time than insulin injection, providing great potential for clinical application.