Off-the-shelf microfluidics for the preparation of nanocarriers

FLORENCIA MINETTI; LUCIANO N. MENGATTO; MARÍA LAURA OLIVARES; CLAUDIO L. A. BERLI

Buenos Aires

Congreso; III Brazil-Argentine Microfluidics Congress / VI Congreso Argentino de Microfluídica; 2022

Centro Atómico Constituyentes Buenos Aires

The microfluidic preparation of nanocarriers hasgained increasinginterestfor the formulation of pharmaceutical and nutritional products, and lately for the elaboration of modern RNA vaccines. Here we describe the use ofoff-the-shelf microfluidic devicesto produce solvent-shifting nanoprecipitation.More precisely, we report the efficient generation of curcumin-loaded albumin nanoparticles (NPs) in a coaxial flow system made from dispensing needles, microtubing, and tee-connectors. The flows were driven by gravity, whichprovides enhanced flow stability and precise handling of the focused streams.  We further developed a mathematical model that defines the operating window of the experimental microfluidic setup.The obtained NPs were characterized in size, morphology, and structure, by using dynamic light scattering, electron microscopy, and infrared spectroscopy, respectively.The implementednanoprecipitation process enables the preparation of nanometric particles with controlled sizein a simple and inexpensive way. The whole equipment is robust and easy to assembly in common laboratories. The wholeprocesscould be parallelized to multiply the throughput, which is highly required for large-scale formulations.  One may conclude that the methodology here proposed opens several possibilities to further expand the microfluidic preparation of nanocarriers for the transport and release of actives compounds