Research project
Painless administration of antirheumatic drugs through microneedles and personalized treatment by monitoring of disease activity and quality of life.
The aim of this project is to decrease the burdensome of the medical treatment of children with JIA by focusing on its two main pillars: 1) drug administration route and 2) drug administration frequency.
- Partners
The study will be conducted as collaborative project of the dept. Pharmaceutical Technology of the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research of Leiden University (Prof. Dr. Joke Bouwstra), the Centre for Human Drug Research (Prof. Dr. Koos Burggraaf) and the dept. of Pediatrics of Leiden University Medical Centre (Dr. Rebecca ten Cate, pediatric rheumatologist).
Children with rheumatic diseases are often treated with painful subcutaneous injections. Weekly administration is usual, but for systemic Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) daily injections are necessary. Needle phobia is a recurrent topic during outpatient consultations and the distress of perpetual injections leads to discontinuation of effective drugs in some families.
The aim of this project is to decrease the burdensome of the medical treatment of children with JIA by focusing on its two main pillars: 1) drug administration route and 2) drug administration frequency.
- Painless administration of antirheumatic drugs through microneedles would greatly improve the quality of life of these children (and families). The more gradual availability of the drug through intradermal administration could even provide us yet unforeseen advantages.
- Assessing the individual inflammatory disease state and quality of life on a daily basis at home will provide means to personalize the individual treatment strategy. Monitoring of disease parameters, drug affects and disease & treatment discomfort will give reliable information if fewer injections would optimize the well-being of children with rheumatic diseases.