Abstract: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by chronic joint inflammation, eventually leading to severe disability and premature death. At present, the treatment of RA is mainly to reduce inflammation, swelling, and pain. Commonly used drugs are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), glucocorticoids, and disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). These drugs lack specificity and require long-term, high-dose administration, which can cause serious adverse effects. In addition, the oral, intravenous, and intra-articular injections will reduce patient compliance, resulting in high cost and low bioavailability. Due to these limitations, microneedles (MNs) have emerged as a new strategy to efficiently localize the drugs in inflamed joints for the treatment of RA. MNs can overcome the cuticle barrier of the skin without stimulating nerves and blood vessels. Which can increase patient compliance, improve bioavailability, and avoid systemic circulation. This review summarizes and evaluates the application of MNs in RA, especially dissolving MNs (DMNs). We encourage the use of MNs to treat RA, by describing the general properties of MNs, materials, preparation technology, drug release mechanism, and advantages. Furthermore, we discussed the biological safety, development prospects, and future challenges of MNs, hoping to provide a new strategy for the treatment of RA.

Keywords: rheumatoid arthritis, dissolving microneedles, transdermal delivery system, degradability, biosafety