Department of Medical Nanotechnology, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
AAPS PharmSciTech. 2012 Dec;13(4):1293-301. doi: 10.1208/s12249-012-9859-3. Epub 2012 Sep 21.
Artificial neural networks (ANNs) were used in this study to determine factors that control the polydispersity index (PDI) in an acetaminophen nanosuspension which was prepared using nanoprecipitation in microfluidic devices. The PDI of prepared formulations was measured by dynamic light scattering. Afterwards, the ANNs were applied to model the data. Four independent variables, namely, surfactant concentration, solvent temperature, and flow rate of solvent and antisolvent were considered as input variables, and the PDI of acetaminophen nanosuspension was taken as the output variable. The response surfaces, generated as 3D graphs after modeling, were used to survey the interactions happening between the input variables and the output variable. Comparison of the response surfaces indicated that the antisolvent flow rate and the solvent temperature have reverse effect on the PDI, whereas solvent flow rate has direct relation with PDI. Also, the effect of the concentration of the surfactant on the PDI was found to be indirect and less influential. Overall, it was found that minimum PDI may be obtained at high values of antisolvent flow rate and solvent temperature, while the solvent flow rate should be kept to a minimum.
本研究采用人工神经网络（ANNs）来确定在使用微流控装置中的纳米沉淀法制备对乙酰氨基酚纳米混悬剂时控制多分散指数（PDI）的因素。通过动态光散射法测量所制备配方的 PDI。之后，将 ANN 应用于模型数据。四个独立变量，即表面活性剂浓度、溶剂温度以及溶剂和抗溶剂的流速，被视为输入变量，而对乙酰氨基酚纳米混悬剂的 PDI 则被视为输出变量。建模后生成的三维图作为响应面，用于调查输入变量与输出变量之间发生的相互作用。对响应面的比较表明，抗溶剂流速和溶剂温度对 PDI 具有相反的影响，而溶剂流速与 PDI 呈直接关系。此外，还发现表面活性剂浓度对 PDI 的影响是间接的，影响较小。总体而言，发现最小的 PDI 可能在高抗溶剂流速和溶剂温度下获得，而应将溶剂流速保持在最低水平。
