Getting vaccinated is a painful thing for many patients, especially small children, who often wail at the health center because of vaccination. However, given that there is no better way to inject, we have to endure the pain and discomfort of the injection.
When we were young, our parents must have tricked us into thinking that the injection was like a mosquito bite, it didn't hurt at all.
What happened? The needle is not a mosquito bite, it's a bullfly bite, and the fine needle is fine, but the thicker needle is a pain in the heart!
Unexpectedly, there is now a team that uses the principle of mosquito bites to design a syringe that does not cause pain.
Finding inspiration from mosquitoes
Recently, the international journal Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials published an interesting study, in which researchers at Ohio State University found that a mosquito biting an animal can cause pain. Researchers at Ohio State University, have developed a painless microneedle that makes injections less painful.
The researchers said they were inspired by mosquitoes, and were particularly intrigued by how the mosquito's stinging, sucking mouthparts can pierce the body without causing pain.
Four ways to get stung without feeling
By analyzing past literature studies, the team made clear that mosquitoes, when sucking blood, avoid causing pain in the object of the three ways:
Numbness - Mosquitoes secrete saliva containing proteins that cause a feeling of numbness. Numbness - the saliva secreted by the mosquito contains proteins that cause numbness Bundles of serrated design mouthparts Vibratory drive - when piercing the skin, the part of the secretion or drawing blood vibrates, which reduces the amount of force needed and reduces the sensation of 'pain'.And, by studying mosquito feeding, the researchers discovered a fourth method:
Specialized 'lips' - Female Aedes vexan mosquitoes, the most common mosquito in North America, have mouthparts of varying lengths. And about the closer to the tip of the mouthparts the softer the upper lip is, reducing the force required to pierce the skin."This construction is very important because the soft tip reduces deformation of the skin when it pierces it," said Prof. Bharat Bhushan of Ohio State University. This labor-saving construction allows the mosquito to pierce the skin with only one-third of the force that the needle would need to apply to pierce the skin.
Seeking funding to turn theory into product
Bhushan argues that all of these approaches could be combined in a single artificial microneedle. However, it is unlikely that such needles would be used in all cases because of their high cost. However, it could be a good option for young children or people who get needle-sick.
"We have the materials and the capability to create such a microneedle," Bhushan concluded, "and the next step is to find the financial support to create and test such a device."