An Implantable Micro-Caged Device for Direct Local Delivery of Agents.

ABSTRACT

Local and controlled delivery of therapeutic agents directly into focally afflicted tissues is the ideal for the treatment of diseases that require direct interventions. However, current options are obtrusive, difficult to implement, and limited in their scope of utilization; the optimal solution requires a method that may be optimized for available therapies and is designed for exact delivery. To address these needs, we propose the Biocage, a customizable implantable local drug delivery platform. The device is a needle-sized porous container capable of encasing therapeutic molecules and matrices of interest to be eluted into the region of interest over time. The Biocage was fabricated using the Nanoscribe Photonic Professional GT 3D laser lithography system, a two-photon polymerization (2PP) 3D printer capable of micron-level precision on a millimeter scale. We demonstrate the build consistency and features of the fabricated device; its ability to release molecules; and a method for its accurate, stable delivery in mouse brain tissue. The Biocage provides a powerful tool for customizable and precise delivery of therapeutic agents into target tissues.