POS8-1148
Stable Integration of Photosensitive Therapeutics into Photocrosslinked Polymeric Microneedles
Topic
S8. Frontiers of Functional Polymers in Biology and Medicine
When and Where
Sep 30, 2026
08:30 - 09:30
Room 301 (Grand Ballroom)
Session Chairs
Heesuk KIM
Jinhye BAE
Presenter(s)
Yeong Min Kang (Chungnam National University)
Co-Author(s)
Abstract
Photocrosslinked polymeric microneedles (MNs) are promising platforms for localized therapy; however, radical-mediated photocrosslinking is inherently incompatible with photosensitive therapeutics because it induces drug degradation while simultaneously interfering with polymer network formation. Here, we systematically investigated this incompatibility using methacrylated poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVAMA)/poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) MNs and a β-cyclodextrin (β-CD)-curcumin inclusion complex as model systems. Conventional pre-loading of curcumin resulted in severe photodegradation during photocrosslinking and reduced crosslinking efficiency, leading to compromised network properties. In contrast, a post-loading strategy introduced curcumin after polymer network formation, preserving both the structural integrity of the photocrosslinked MNs and the photoactivity of curcumin. The retained curcumin efficiently generated reactive oxygen species under blue-light irradiation, resulting in enhanced photodynamic antibacterial activity while maintaining good biocompatibility. These findings demonstrate that post-loading effectively overcomes the intrinsic incompatibility between radical photocrosslinking and photosensitive therapeutics, providing a simple and versatile strategy for incorporating photoresponsive bioactive molecules into photocrosslinked polymeric biomaterials for localized photodynamic therapy and related biomedical applications.
