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Efficacy of a bleomycin microneedle patch for the treatment of warts

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Abstract

Warts are a common skin disease caused by infection of the human papilloma virus. Most treatments involving physical destruction of the infected cells, such as cryotherapy and electrocautery, are limited by intense pain, failure, or recurrences. Our aim was to compare the therapeutic effects of a newly developed bleomycin microneedle patch with cryotherapy in the treatment of warts. Forty-two patients with more than two wart lesions were included in the study. The two treatment modalities were randomly applied to different warts on each patient. Treatment efficacy was assessed using the Physician’s Global Assessment (PGA) and the Patient’s Global Assessment (PaGA). Mean PGA and PaGA scores were not significantly different between cryotherapy and bleomycin microneedle patch treatment. It was also determined that the mean size of all the warts treated with either modality shrank about equally at weeks 8 and 16 after initial treatment. Thus, treatment efficacy of the bleomycin microneedle patch was comparable to that of conventional cryotherapy. According to a visual analogue scale of pain, bleomycin microneedle patch treatment was significantly less painful than cryotherapy (p < .0001). In addition, use of the bleomycin microneedle patch was more tolerable for patients who were reluctant to receive the painful treatment. Thus, the bleomycin microneedle patch can be an effective, convenient, and innovative treatment modality for warts.

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Funding

This research was supported by the Gachon University Gil Medical Center (Grant number: 2013-47), a grant of the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea, and by the Technology Innovation Program (10067809, Development of vaccine formulation and patient-convenient vaccine microneedle) funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE, Korea).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology, Gachon University Gil Medical Center, Incheon, South Korea

    Ha Ryeong Ryu, Jung Soo Kim, Seul Ki Lee, Hee Joo Kim, Jin Ok Baek & Joo Young Roh

  2. Department of BioNano Technology and Gacheon BioNano Research Institute, Gachon University, Seongnam, South Korea

    Hye-Rin Jeong, Hye-Seung Seon-Woo & Jung-Hwan Park

Authors
  1. Ha Ryeong Ryu
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  2. Hye-Rin Jeong
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  3. Hye-Seung Seon-Woo
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  4. Jung Soo Kim
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  5. Seul Ki Lee
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  6. Hee Joo Kim
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  7. Jin Ok Baek
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  8. Jung-Hwan Park
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  9. Joo Young Roh
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jung-Hwan Park or Joo Young Roh.

Ethics declarations

The study protocol was approved by the institutional review board (GDIRB2013-16) of Gil Medical Center and conformed to the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki. Written informed consent was obtained from all subjects before they were enrolled in the study.

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Authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Ryu, H.R., Jeong, HR., Seon-Woo, HS. et al. Efficacy of a bleomycin microneedle patch for the treatment of warts. Drug Deliv. and Transl. Res. 8, 273–280 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13346-017-0458-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13346-017-0458-4

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