Advances in Microfluidic‐Based Core@Shell Nanoparticles Fabrication for Cancer Applications

Abstract

Current research in cancer therapy focuses on personalized therapies, through nanotechnology‐based targeted drug delivery systems. Particularly, controlled drug release with core‐shell nanoparticles can be designed to safely transport various active agents, optimizing delivery to specific organs and tumors, minimizing side effects. The use of microfluidics in this field has stood out against conventional methods by allowing precise control over parameters like size, structure, composition, and mechanical/biological properties of nanoscale carriers. This review compiles applications of microfluidics in the production of core‐shell nanoparticles for cancer therapy, discussing the versatility inherent in various microchannel and/or micromixer setups and showcasing how these setups can be utilized individually or in combination, as well as how this technology allowed the development of new advances in more efficient and controlled fabrication of core‐shell nanoformulations. Recent biological studies have achieved an effective, safe and controlled delivery of otherwise unreliable encapsulants such as siRNA, pDNA, and cisplatin as a result of precisely tuned fabrication of nanocarriers, showing that this technology is paving the way for innovative strategies in cancer therapy nanofabrication, characterized by continuous production and high reproducibility. Finally, this review analyses the technical, biological, and technological limitations that currently prevent this technology from becoming the standard.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Efficient internalization of poly(benzyl malate) and poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(benzyl malate) copolymer based nanoparticles by human hepatic HepaRG cells and macrophages : Impact of nanoparticle functionalization by GBVA10-9 peptide on cell uptake.

“…In the last two decades, an impressive literature reporting basic and translational research on NPs has led to multiple preclinical/clinical trials and the approval of several formulations by regulatory authorities for diagnosis and therapeutics in oncology [O'Brien et al, 2004 ;Stinchcombe, 2007 ;Anselmo and Mitragotri, 2021 ;Aldosari et al, 2021], gene therapies [Coelho et al, 2013 ;Kristen et al, 2019] and more recently the mRNA vaccines [Dolgin, 2021]. These breakthroughs result from optimized synthesis of macromolecules, improvement of their physicochemical features such as size, porosity, shape and surface properties that play an important role in drug encapsulation and delivery [Raemdonck et al, 2015 ;Topete et al, 2015 ;Stylianopoulos et al, 2015], and the formulation of NPs by microfluidics [Almeida et al, 2024]. Despite these successes, the use of drug delivery nanostructures in clinical protocols is far from being a generalized routine and developments of novel NPs are still required to overcome some biological barriers and limitations to address specific cellular targets such as solid tumors with poor prognosis [Blanco et al, 2015].…”