Transdermal drug delivery mediated by acoustic vortex beam

Ultrasound-mediated transdermal drug delivery exhibits various advantages such as biocompatibility, controllability and safety, which attracts plenty of interests within biomedical field. Current researches mostly emphasizes the acoustic cavitation generated by planar or focused waves while neglecting other physics that occur during transportation. Our experimental study illustrates the presence of an acoustic vortex (AV) beam that exhibits a lower acoustic intensity and typically means a lower dose of inertial cavitation, yet achieves a more efficient delivery. Such a result calls for the fundamental mechanism of ultrasound-mediated transdermal transfer using the AV beam. In this work, according to our knowledge, the AV beam is firstly introduced to ultrasound-mediated transdermal medication delivery. The transversal acoustic radiation force (T-ARF), which is the primary characteristic carried by the acoustic vortex beam, and its contribution to the transport enhancement are investigated. It is shown that a focused AV (FAV) beam with a maximal acoustic pressure of 200 kPa induces a pN-level T-ARF, which promotes the enlargement of pores on the stratum corneum and thereby enhances the permeability, as compared with a zero-order (non-vortex) counterpart. This contribution of the T-ARF is validated by the experimental transport on the cellulose membrane, which exhibits a significantly increased membrane porosity and delivery efficiency. The favorable results introduce the new degree of freedom into the ultrasound-mediated transdermal drug transport based on AV beam, and thereby promotes the development of a combined control strategy for more precise and efficient transdermal drug delivery in conjunction with the administration of acoustic cavitation.