Nanochannel Technology for Constant Delivery of Chemotherapeutics: Beyond Metronomic Administration

Abstract

Our membranes potentially represent a viable nanotechnological approach for the controlled administration of chemotherapeutics intended to improve the therapeutic efficacy of treatment and reduce many of the side effects associated with conventional drug administration.

Nanochannels formed on TiZr alloy improve biological response

“…For example, in particular nanochannelar membranes (e.g. silicon) have been explored for drug delivery applications with great results [38][39][40]. However, the substrate material is generally silicon and immunogenicity studies are as a result performed on nanochanneled silicon surfaces [41].…”

Hierarchical modeling of diffusive transport through nanochannels by coupling molecular dynamics with finite element method

“…Emerging new material properties and transport phenomena make nanofluidic devices appealing for novel biomedical and industrial applications, including drug delivery [9,10], catalysis [11,12] and molecular filtering [13], where precise mass exchange and timing are essential. The Peclet number of nanofluidic systems ranges from 10 À6 to 1 with a diffusivity of 10 À5 cm 2 /s, indicating that molecular diffusion may dominate the mass transport [14].…”

“…Specifically, this study showed that diffusivity exponentially decreases to negligible values when approaching a solid surface. In these conditions new transport regimes, such as saturated and concentration-independent, may be established [9,20]. Analysis of those transport regimes requires novel tools, capable of integrating molecular scale information into complex macroscale models of nanofluidic devices.…”

Implantable micro-chip for controlled delivery of diclofenac sodium

“…However, due to the hydrophobic material of which they were composed (poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)), the channels were difficult to wet, causing some of the channels to be frequently occluded in an irregular manner and leading to a high chance of drug release inaccuracy. Nano-scaled channels were also employed as diffusion barriers to achieve zero-order drug release [24,25]. The drug release was modulated depending on the hydrodynamic diameter of the drug molecules; however, this approach could only be used for macromolecular drugs and is therefore not suitable for small-molecule drugs, such as DS.…”