Simon Kuhn and colleahues from KU Leuven and the University of Zaragoza have a new articles on the subject of the microfluidic synthesis of PLGA nanoparticles enabled by an ultrasonic microreactor. The article is soon to be published in the journal Reaction Chemistry & Engineering.
We present an ultrasonic microreactor for synthesising poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) nanoparticles through the emulsion-solvent evaporation technique. Monodispersed PLGA nanoparticles (polydispersity index (PDI) < 0.3) in the size range of 20-300 nm are desired for biomedical applications. An ultrasonic microreactor with rough microchannels is utilised for the synthesis of PLGA nanoparticles. Through a comprehensive parametric investigation, we identify the optimal ultrasonic power, PLGA concentration, and aqueous-to-organic phase flow rate ratio, to minimise the size of the PLGA nanoparticles. By varying the operational parameters and the concentration of PLGA, the mean hydrodynamic diameter of the monodispersed PLGA nanoparticles (PDI of 0.1-0.2) can be varied within the range of 115-150 nm. Furthermore, the successful encapsulation of a hydrophobic dye, Nile Red, is demonstrated, where a dye loading (DL) of up to 0.34% is achieved, which is in agreement with the previously reported loading of Nile Red. The in-vitro release study performed for the Nile Red-loaded PLGA nanoparticles (NR-PLGA) reveals a triphasic release profile of Nile Red. In summary, this work highlights the potential of the ultrasonic microreactor as a versatile platform for the synthesis of PLGA nanoparticles suitable for biomedical applications.
Reference
A. Udepurkar, L. Mampaey, C. Clasen, V. Sebastian and S. Kuhn, React. Chem. Eng., 2024, DOI: 10.1039/D4RE00107A
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge funding from the Research Foundation Flanders (G0B5921N, G088922N). The authors would like to thank Suqi Zhang for his assistance with the GPC measurements and Prof. Erin Koos and Yanshen Zhu for the access and assistance with the DLS measurements. VS acknowledges the financial support by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (grant number PID2021-127847OB-I00), NextGenerationEU/PRTR project: PDC2022-133866-I00, CIBERBBN and ELECMI and NANBIOSIS ICTSs
