Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia.
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia.
J Control Release. 2014 Sep 28;190:139-49. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2014.04.030. Epub 2014 Apr 30.
The development of new and improved particle-based drug delivery is underpinned by an enhanced ability to engineer particles with high fidelity and integrity, as well as increased knowledge of their biological performance. Microfluidics can facilitate these processes through the engineering of spatiotemporally highly controlled environments using designed microstructures in combination with physical phenomena present at the microscale. In this review, we discuss microfluidics in the context of addressing key challenges in particle-based drug delivery. We provide an overview of how microfluidic devices can: (i) be employed to engineer particles, by providing highly controlled interfaces, and (ii) be used to establish dynamic in vitro models that mimic in vivo environments for studying the biological behavior of engineered particles. Finally, we discuss how the flexible and modular nature of microfluidic devices provides opportunities to create increasingly realistic models of the in vivo milieu (including multi-cell, multi-tissue and even multi-organ devices), and how ongoing developments toward commercialization of microfluidic tools are opening up new opportunities for the engineering and evaluation of drug delivery particles.
新的和改进的基于粒子的药物输送的发展，其基础是能够更高保真度和完整性地工程化粒子的能力增强，以及对其生物学性能的了解增加。微流控技术可以通过使用设计的微结构与微尺度上存在的物理现象相结合，在时空上高度控制的环境中进行工程设计，从而促进这些过程。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了微流控技术在解决基于粒子的药物输送的关键挑战方面的应用。我们概述了微流控设备如何：（i）通过提供高度可控的界面，用于工程化粒子，以及（ii）用于建立模拟体内环境的动态体外模型，以研究工程化粒子的生物学行为。最后，我们讨论了微流控设备的灵活和模块化性质如何为创建越来越逼真的体内环境模型（包括多细胞、多组织甚至多器官设备）提供机会，以及微流控工具向商业化的不断发展如何为药物输送粒子的工程和评估开辟新的机会。
