Precision point-of-care in drug delivery: empowering innovations with optical fiber assisted by microfluidics

Recent advancements in loco-regional therapy are revolutionizing the point-of-care (POC) drug delivery field, enhancing the convenience, comfort, and effectiveness of these devices for patients. New anticancer drugs have improved the therapy, but there is still significant work to be done in order to selectively target tumour cells. To bridge this gap, here, we present a minimally invasive tool based on optical fibers (OFs) integrated in a microfluidic device for light-triggered loco regional delivery of drug-loaded particles. Specifically, we, here, selected the Lab on Fiber (LOF) technology as an attractive option to guide light and trigger the drug release. LOF, indeed, enables precise drug dosing and targeted transport, laying the foundation for mini-invasive platforms in light-activated loco-regional drug delivery. The platform includes drug-loaded carriers covalently attached on the OF surface through a photocleavable linker. The OF platform has been designed to spread light from the core region towards the cladding area in order to achieve enough power density to photo-cleave the linker and release the carrier. To this aim, side-emitting and core-offset OFs optrodes have been designed, fabricated and characterized achieving power density and scattering efficiency of 30% and 5mW/cm2 and 24.9% and 4.64mW/cm2. OFs were integrated into a microfluidic device and the particle release upon light activation was quantified. The side-emitting OF microfluidic system, designed for Hepatocellular cancer therapy, released 2.60µg/ml of carriers, while the core-offset OF microfluidic system, for Breast cancer treatment, released 1.06µg/ml of carriers. This approach holds potential for improving cancer treatment outcomes.