Would you trade a shot for a pinch? A recent MedicalXpress article discussed a new drug delivery method that uses temporal pressure to create short term changes in the skin barrier, making it better at receiving medicine. A team of researchers in Singapore published a paper in Science Advances illustrating how using two magnets to pinch and apply pressure to skin creates temporary “micropores” that allows superficially applied drugs to diffuse more easily.
In studies on mice, the team found that the micropores created by pinching allowed drugs to pass through the skin in quantities six times as high as mice that did not receive the temporal pressure treatment. The concept was inspired by the traditional Chinese medicine ‘tuina’ therapy in which doctors rub and apply pressure to skin and muscle tissue while applying topical ointments.
