Engineering 3D Printed Microfluidic Chips for the Fabrication of Nanomedicines

Abstract

Currently, there is an unmet need to manufacture nanomedicines in a continuous and controlled manner. Three-dimensional (3D) printed microfluidic chips are an alternative to conventional PDMS chips as they can be easily designed and manufactured to allow for customized designs that are able to reproducibly manufacture nanomedicines at an affordable cost. The manufacturing of microfluidic chips using existing 3D printing technologies remains very challenging because of the intricate geometry of the channels. Here, we demonstrate the manufacture and characterization of nifedipine (NFD) polymeric nanoparticles based on Eudragit L-100 using 3D printed microfluidic chips with 1 mm diameter channels produced with two 3D printing techniques that are widely available, stereolithography (SLA) and fuse deposition modeling (FDM). Fabricated polymeric nanoparticles showed good encapsulation efficiencies and particle sizes in the range of 50–100 nm. SLA chips possessed better channel resolution and smoother channel surfaces, leading to smaller particle sizes similar to those obtained by conventional manufacturing methods based on solvent evaporation, while SLA manufactured nanoparticles showed a minimal burst effect in acid media compared to nanoparticles fabricated with FDM chips. Three-dimensional printed microfluidic chips are a novel and easily amenable cost-effective strategy to allow for customization of the design process for continuous manufacture of nanomedicines under controlled conditions, enabling easy scale-up and reducing nanomedicine development times, while maintaining high-quality standards.

3D Printing Technologies in Personalized Medicine, Nanomedicines, and Biopharmaceuticals

“…3D printing microfluidic devices are capable of high-throughput synthesis of nanomedicines with tuneable dimensions, resulting in an enormous advantage compared with the conventional batch method [ 163 , 164 , 165 , 166 , 167 , 171 , 172 ]. Still, solvent and unencapsulated drug removal remain a challenge for continuous manufacturing using these devices.…”

Combining 3D Printing and Microfluidic Techniques: A Powerful Synergy for Nanomedicine

“…Despite the promising data obtained when applying both MF devices, this comparative study highlighted the superior validity of SLA as a printing technique. In fact, the SLA-based device provided enhanced mixing properties in the fabrication of the best-performing polymeric NPs [ 111 ].…”

Automated dynamic inlet microfluidics system: 3D printer adaptation for cost-effective, low volume, on-demand multi-analyte droplet generator

“…Macro systems are when microfluidics chips are not fabricated using the lithographic technique but are designed using alternative technologies such as three-dimensional (3D) printing. 12,13 In literature, 3D printing is mainly used either to create molds for PDMS 14 or print the microfluidic chips directly 15 like Junyi Chen et al 16 who developed a 3D printed modular microfluidic chips. The chips are fabricated using projection micro stereolithography 3D printing technology with a feature size of 10 μm.…”