Abstract
The microfluidic technique has emerged as a promising tool to accelerate the clinical translation of nanoparticles, and its application affects several aspects, such as the production of nanoparticles and the in vitro characterization in the microenvironment, mimicking in vivo conditions. This review covers the general aspects of the microfluidic technique and its application in several fields, such as the synthesis, recovering, and samples analysis of nanoparticles, and in vitro characterization and their in vivo application. Among these, advantages in the production of polymeric nanoparticles in a well-controlled, reproducible, and high-throughput manner have been highlighted, and detailed descriptions of microfluidic devices broadly used for the synthesis of polysaccharide nanoparticles have been provided. These nanoparticulate systems have drawn attention as drug delivery vehicles over many years; nevertheless, their synthesis using the microfluidic technique is still largely unexplored. This review deals with the use of the microfluidic technique for the synthesis of polysaccharide nanoparticles; evaluating features of the most studied polysaccharide drug carriers, such as chitosan, hyaluronic acid, and alginate polymers. The critical assessment of the most recent research published in literature allows us to assume that microfluidics will play an important role in the discovery and clinical translation of nanoplatforms.
Highlights
Microfluidics is the science and technology field dealing with miniaturized systems that process, or manipulate, small volumes of fluids (10−9 to 10−18 L), by means of channels with dimensions ranging from tens to hundreds of micrometers
This review will briefly describe the applications of the microfluidic technique in sample analysis and organ-on-chip creation, and it will focus on the use of the microfluidic technique for the production of polymer NPs, namely polysaccharide NPs
The results showed that the size of NPs increased as FR or polymer concentration increased (Figure 5b)
Summary
Microfluidics is the science and technology field dealing with miniaturized systems that process, or manipulate, small volumes of fluids (10−9 to 10−18 L), by means of channels with dimensions ranging from tens to hundreds of micrometers. The main feature of this technique is the ability to translate old bulk techniques into a microchannel with a width of about 100 μm In this channel, chemicals are mixed using a pumping technique for synthesis and separation analysis purposes. The main feature of the microfluidic technique is the laminar flow that cannot be reached in macroscale devices. This phenomenon is due to the predominant role of viscous forces and it cannot be neglected. A microfluidic mixer is not a miniaturized version of a macroscale mixing device, and it should be designed in such a way to leverage the physical characteristics of mass and fluid transfer in the micro-confined domain. This review will briefly describe the applications of the microfluidic technique in sample analysis and organ-on-chip creation, and it will focus on the use of the microfluidic technique for the production of polymer NPs, namely polysaccharide NPs
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