Recent researches have shown the potential benefits brought by microfluidic tools to the formulation, that is, nanoprecipitation, of polymeric nanoparticles loaded with active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), lipoplexes, or even pure drug nanoparticles. With years of experience focusing on microfluidic-based encapsulation, Creative Biolabs is capable of providing high-quality microfluidic-based API encapsulation services to global clients.
Introduction of Microfluidic-based API Encapsulation
Microfluidics deals with the movement of small volumes of fluids in capillaries of several hundred or tens of micrometers in diameter. In the last decade, these technologies have advanced significantly largely facilitated by progress in the electronics industry. Recently, the applications of microfluidics have been considerably expanded to the multidisciplinary fields of biotechnology including the wide use of micro/nanoparticles-based drug delivery systems for small drug molecules.
Application of Microfluidic-based API Encapsulation
There are two kinds of outstanding applications, on the one hand, lipid-based systems mainly for encapsulating oligonucleotides forming lipoplexes, and on the other hand, polymer nanocarrier, mainly dedicated to encapsulating the antitumor agent with potential surface modification towards active targeting. These two different applications have already existed in batch systems for many years, but they both found high improvements through their adaptation to the microfluidic technologies in the control of size, size distribution, and in general in the accurate control of the nanocarrier fabrication process.
Fig. 1 API encapsulation analysis.1,2
Advantages
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Consumption of small quantity of reagents normally 102 -- 103 times less than conventional methods thus addressing safety (anticancer drugs, biological and radioactive) and economic issues;
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Improved mass and heat transfer due to the large surface;
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Provides precise control overflow, that is, laminar flow due to small Reynolds number where viscous forces are dominant;
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Continuous flow operations;
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Reduced mixing time;
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Low power consumption;
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Rapidly produces libraries of different materials by changing composition and fluid phase flow rate;
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Production of particles where the coefficient of variation is < 5% and high encapsulation efficiency;
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Miniaturization allows portability and on-the-spot analysis due to integration and low power consumption;
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Parallelization on microfluidic chips allows high throughput and multiple analysis at a time;
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Faster analysis and quick response due to shorter diffusion distances;
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Allows rapid screening of nanoparticles during different phases of clinical development.
Services at Creative Biolabs
Creative Biolabs has established a comprehensive microfluidic-based encapsulation platform and equipped it with advanced facilities and excellent scientists. During the years of period focusing on this field, we have successfully accomplished a number of customer-satisfied projects. In this context, we are confident in providing reliable microfluidic-based API encapsulation services to global clients. If you are looking for an appropriate method for API encapsulation, please don’t hesitate to contact us for more information.
References
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Larrea, Arruebo, et al. " Trojan pH-Sensitive Polymer Particles Produced in a Continuous-Flow Capillary Microfluidic Device Using Water-in-Oil-in-Water Double-Emulsion Droplets " Micromachines 13.6 (2022): 878.
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Open Access license CC BY 4.0, without modification.
