Microfluidic Nanoparticles for Drug Delivery

Abstract

Nanoparticles (NPs) have attracted tremendous interest in drug delivery in the past decades. Microfluidics offers a promising strategy for making NPs for drug delivery due to its capability in precisely controlling NP properties. The recent success of mRNA vaccines using microfluidics represents a big milestone for microfluidic NPs for pharmaceutical applications, and its rapid scaling up demonstrates the feasibility of using microfluidics for industrial‐scale manufacturing. This article provides a critical review of recent progress in microfluidic NPs for drug delivery. First, the synthesis of organic NPs using microfluidics focusing on typical microfluidic methods and their applications in making popular and clinically relevant NPs, such as liposomes, lipid NPs, and polymer NPs, as well as their synthesis mechanisms are summarized. Then, the microfluidic synthesis of several representative inorganic NPs (e.g., silica, metal, metal oxide, and quantum dots), and hybrid NPs is discussed. Lastly, the applications of microfluidic NPs for various drug delivery applications are presented.

Recent advances in mixing-induced nanoprecipitation: from creating complex nanostructures to emerging applications beyond biomedicine

“…32,33 Therefore, significant advances in the design and development of nanoparticles by using MINP have been made. 15,16,18,27,34–39…”

“…32,33 Therefore, significant advances in the design and development of nanoparticles by using MINP have been made. 15,16,18,27,[34][35][36][37][38][39] Recently, a few reviews highlight the formation of complex morphologies via nanoprecipitation. 15,16,27 Yan and co-workers summarized the creation of complex polymeric colloidal morphologies via nanoprecipitation.…”

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

“…Thus, alternative strategies for producing NPs with adequate features are required because traditional production methods are incapable of ensuring rapid, inexpensive, high-reproducibility synthesis [ 19 ]. The main challenge remains the inability to control the size and polydispersity index (PDI) in bulk solutions due to a lack of rigid control over mixing and reaction times [ 20 ].…”

Wood-inspired high-efficiency bioreactors with hierarchical porous structures for continuous flow reactions

“…14 However, most directional channel reactors are usually implemented by etching techniques; the number of channels is limited, and the fluid only moves along a single channel. 15,16 In this case, an efficient mass transfer occurs mainly in the axial direction (along the channel direction), but the radial mass transfer ability is weak ( perpendicular to the channel direction), which greatly limits the catalytic efficiency of the whole reactor. Therefore, it is necessary to design a new and efficient continuous fluid biocatalytic reactor.…”