Microfluidic system solutions for encapsulating an API in PLGA particles.Drug microencapsulation using PLGA has become increasingly popular within drug formulation teams due to the ease of PLGA particle metabolism and the ease of controlling the release of the drug over time. The particles can also be coated to increase their blood circulation lifetime giving even more control over treatment dosing.
Ligands and antibodies can be grafted onto the particle surface to target specific sites for drug release. Our systems provide users with the ability to efficiently generate particles while precisely controlling their size and physical characteristics.
Microfluidics, also known as a ‘lab-on-a-chip’, enables the precise control, manipulation and analysis of fluids in the microlitre to picolitre range. Furthermore, it allows the manipulation of living matter by mixing, separating and handling different components at a microscale.
Dolomite is pioneering the use of microfluidic devices for small-scale fluid control and analysis, enabling engineers and scientists to take full advantage of the following benefits:
The use of microfluidic devices for PLGA particle production for pharmaceutical applications brings advantages such as:
Precise particle production is crucial in controlled drug release applications, where predictable degradation of PLGA is employed for sustained release, at desirable doses – especially for non-surgical implantation. In the case of targeted drug delivery, the particles accumulate in specific tissues using the Enhanced Permeability and Retention (EPR) effect, or as a result of particle surface functionalization by targeting species such as anti-bodies. It is possible to tune the release profiles from the polymer-drug matrix by controlling polymer molecular weight, ratio of lactide to glycolide, drug concentration and particle size.
|
Droplet size |
Particle size from 50 nm to 50 µm in diameter (depending on system version) |
|
Droplet monodispersity |
Extremely monodisperse, CV < up to 1%. |
| Droplet generation frequency | Up to 10 kHz for a standard system and up to a MHz for a Telos® production system (depending on reagents and droplet sizes). |
| Flow rate range |
From 70 nL/min to 5 mL/min, depending on pressure, viscosity and channel geometry (flow resistance). |
| Flow pressure |
Flexible with vacuum and pressure capability in the same pump (pump pressure range: 0-10 bar). Pumps contain integrated reservoir to eliminate the risk of vial fracture in operation. |
| Chemical resistance |
Very high (wetted materials: glass, PEEK, ETFE, FEP, PTFE). |
Telos® High-Throughput Production Systems provide a controlled solution for scaling-up droplet, particles or emulsion manufacturing. Each Dolomite Microfluidic System has a flexible configuration which allows up to 10 Telos® Clamp Modules to be assembled in parallel, enabling identical conditions for scale-up of production rate for up to 500,000 monodisperse particles per second.
A Dolomite microfluidic system is helping Dr Samar Damiati, Assistant Professor in the Biochemistry Department at King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia, perform drug encapsulation studies.
Methodology for fabrication of monodisperse PLGA nanoparticles with sizes ranging from 50 nm to 30 μm using the Hydrodynamic Flow Focusing Method on Dolomite's API Encapsulation System and a 5 Input Chip.
Methodology for fabrication of highly monodisperse PLGA beads with sizes ranging from 10 to 45μm using the Droplet Method on Dolomite’s API Encapsulation System and a 3D Flow Focusing Chip.