Drug treatment of diseases of the human nail remains a difficult challenge; topical therapy, in particular, is limited by very poor transport of active agents across the nail itself. The objective of this research was to examine the potential of controlled, and fibre-optic delivered, femtosecond laser light pulses to provide new pathways and opportunities for drug access to targets within and beneath the nail plate. Optical, confocal fluorescence and scanning electron microscopies demonstrated partial and complete laser poration of human nail samples, with the energy per pore and the exposure duration being the key modulating parameters that determined the extent of ablation achieved. Parallel measurements of the penetration of a model drug across laser-treated nails showed that complete poration resulted in essentially complete circumvention of the diffusion barrier, an array of 100 pores in 0.2 cm² area of nail permitting a 10³-fold increase in initial drug uptake. Partial ablation of the nail created pores that extended to a range of depths; the nail material adjacent to the ablated area was rendered porous in appearance presumably due to local thermal perturbation of the nail structure. These openings offer, as a result, potential sites in which topical drug formulations might be sequestered post-poration and from which slow, sustained delivery of the active agent into and through the nail may be envisaged.

药物治疗人类指甲疾病仍然是一个艰巨的挑战。特别地，局部治疗受到活性剂跨指甲本身的非常差的运输的限制。这项研究的目的是检查受控的和光纤传输的飞秒激光脉冲的潜力，从而为药物到达钉板内部和下方的目标提供新的途径和机会。光学，共聚焦荧光和扫描电子显微镜显示了人类指甲样品的部分和完全激光渗透，其中每个孔的能量和暴露持续时间是决定消融程度的关键调节参数。指甲的²面积允许初始药物吸收增加10 ³倍。指甲的部分消融产生了延伸到一定深度的毛孔。大概是由于指甲结构的局部热扰动，使与消融区域相邻的指甲材料的外观变得多孔。结果，这些开口提供了潜在的部位，在局部部位中，局部药物制剂可以在穿孔后隔离，并且可以设想从中缓慢，持续地将活性剂递送到指甲中和通过指甲。