Isogeometric analysis of subcutaneous injection of monoclonal antibodies

Subcutaneous injection for self-administration of biotherapeutics, such as monoclonal antibodies, has emerged as a fast-growing field in the pharmaceutical industry. Effective drug delivery in the subcutaneous tissue critically depends on the coupled mechanical and transport processes occurring in the tissue during and after the injection. The details of these processes, however, remain poorly understood; and this explains the growing interest in computational approaches. Notably, there are very few computational studies on subcutaneous injection into three-dimensional porous media that account for tissue deformability. Here, we leverage a poroelastic model to analyze the response of subcutaneous tissue under the flow of a pressurized fluid. We propose a computational method based on Isogeometric Analysis that exploits the global continuity of splines. Our model shows the importance of considering tissue deformation and permeability changes in order to obtain more realistic results in terms of fluid pressure and velocity, during and after the injection. •We study computationally subcutaneous injection of monoclonal antibodies.•We focus on the coupled transport and mechanical processes occurring in the subcutis.•The proposed methodology is based on the theory of poroelasticity and Isogeometric Analysis.•We show the potential of Isogeometric Analysis for modeling subcutaneous injection.•Our results reveal a major role of tissue deformation and permeability changes on the transport process.