Karnik Rohit, Gu Frank, Basto Pamela, Cannizzaro Christopher, Dean Lindsey, Kyei-Manu William, Langer Robert, Farokhzad Omid C
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Nano Lett. 2008 Sep;8(9):2906-12. doi: 10.1021/nl801736q. Epub 2008 Jul 26.
A central challenge in the development of drug-encapsulated polymeric nanoparticles is the inability to control the mixing processes required for their synthesis resulting in variable nanoparticle physicochemical properties. Nanoparticles may be developed by mixing and nanoprecipitation of polymers and drugs dissolved in organic solvents with nonsolvents. We used rapid and tunable mixing through hydrodynamic flow focusing in microfluidic channels to control nanoprecipitation of poly(lactic- co-glycolic acid)- b-poly(ethylene glycol) diblock copolymers as a model polymeric biomaterial for drug delivery. We demonstrate that by varying (1) flow rates, (2) polymer composition, and (3) polymer concentration we can optimize the size, improve polydispersity, and control drug loading and release of the resulting nanoparticles. This work suggests that microfluidics may find applications for the development and optimization of polymeric nanoparticles in the newly emerging field of nanomedicine.
药物包裹型聚合物纳米颗粒研发中的一个核心挑战在于，无法控制其合成所需的混合过程，从而导致纳米颗粒的物理化学性质存在差异。纳米颗粒可以通过将溶解在有机溶剂中的聚合物和药物与非溶剂进行混合及纳米沉淀来制备。我们利用微流控通道中的流体动力聚焦实现快速且可调的混合，以控制聚（乳酸-乙醇酸）-b-聚（乙二醇）二嵌段共聚物的纳米沉淀，该共聚物是一种用于药物递送的模型聚合物生物材料。我们证明，通过改变（1）流速、（2）聚合物组成和（3）聚合物浓度，可以优化所得纳米颗粒的尺寸、改善多分散性并控制药物负载和释放。这项工作表明，微流控技术可能在新兴的纳米医学领域中用于聚合物纳米颗粒的研发和优化。
