School of Pharmacy, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK; Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
School of Pharmacy, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK.
Int J Pharm. 2020 Jun 30;584:119408. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2020.119408. Epub 2020 May 12.
Using micro-sized channels to manipulate fluids is the essence of microfluidics which has wide applications from analytical chemistry to material science and cell biology research. Recently, using microfluidic-based devices for pharmaceutical research, in particular for the fabrication of micro- and nano-particles, has emerged as a new area of interest. The particles that can be prepared by microfluidic devices can range from micron size droplet-based emulsions to nano-sized drug loaded polymeric particles. Microfluidic technology poses unique advantages in terms of the high precision of the mixing regimes and control of fluids involved in formulation preparation. As a result of this, monodispersity of the particles prepared by microfluidics is often recognised as being a particularly advantageous feature in comparison to those prepared by conventional large-scale mixing methods. However, there is a range of practical drawbacks and challenges of using microfluidics as a direct micron- and nano-particle manufacturing method. Technological advances are still required before this type of processing can be translated for application by the pharmaceutical industry. This review focuses specifically on the application of microfluidics for pharmaceutical solid nanoparticle preparation and discusses the theoretical foundation of using the nanoprecipitation principle to generate particles and how this is translated into microfluidic design and operation.
使用微通道来操控流体是微流控的本质，它在分析化学、材料科学和细胞生物学研究等领域有广泛的应用。最近，基于微流控的设备在药物研究中的应用，特别是用于制造微纳米颗粒，已经成为一个新的研究领域。微流控设备可以制备从微米尺寸的基于液滴的乳液到纳米尺寸的载药聚合物颗粒。微流控技术在混合状态的高精度和制剂制备中流体的控制方面具有独特的优势。因此，与传统的大规模混合方法相比，微流控制备的颗粒具有单分散性，这通常被认为是一个特别有利的特点。然而，将微流控作为直接的微米和纳米颗粒制造方法使用，存在一系列实际的缺点和挑战。在这种处理方法可以被制药行业应用之前，还需要技术上的进步。这篇综述专门关注微流控在药物固体纳米颗粒制备中的应用，并讨论了使用纳米沉淀原理生成颗粒的理论基础，以及如何将其转化为微流控设计和操作。
