Microfluidic based high throughput synthesis of lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles with tunable diameters

• Published in: Biomicrofluidics Vol. 9; no. 5; p. 052604
• Main Authors: Feng, Qiang, Zhang, Lu, Liu, Chao, Li, Xuanyu, Hu, Guoqing, Sun, Jiashu, Jiang, Xingyu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Institute of Physics 01.09.2015; AIP Publishing LLC
• Subjects: Biocompatibility; Chemical synthesis; Computer simulation; Dispersion; Drug delivery systems; Flow velocity; Glycolic acid; Lipids; Mathematical models; Microchannels; Nanoparticles; Robustness (mathematics); SPECIAL TOPIC: MICROFLUIDICS IN DRUG DELIVERY (GUEST EDITOR BRIGITTE MARIA STADLER)
• ISSN: 1932-1058; 1932-1058
• DOI: 10.1063/1.4922957

Core-shell hybrid nanoparticles (NPs) for drug delivery have attracted numerous attentions due to their enhanced therapeutic efficacy and good biocompatibility. In this work, we fabricate a two-stage microfluidic chip to implement a high-throughput, one-step, and size-tunable synthesis of mono-disperse lipid-poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) NPs. The size of hybrid NPs is tunable by varying the flow rates inside the two-stage microfluidic chip. To elucidate the mechanism of size-controllable generation of hybrid NPs, we observe the flow field in the microchannel with confocal microscope and perform the simulation by a numerical model. Both the experimental and numerical results indicate an enhanced mixing effect at high flow rate, thus resulting in the assembly of small and mono-disperse hybrid NPs. In vitro experiments show that the large hybrid NPs are more likely to be aggregated in serum and exhibit a lower cellular uptake efficacy than the small ones. This microfluidic chip shows great promise as a robust platform for optimization of nano drug delivery system.