纳米发电机™纳米粒子合成系统

粒子合成原理：

NanoGenerator™ 纳米粒子合成系统采用微流体装置进行可控和可调的聚合物粒子生产。下面的示意图说明了在聚焦流几何结构中为粒子合成而设计的结点装置。溶剂置换法用于纳米粒子合成。

Liposomes, a precursor to LNPs, are highly adaptable nanocarriers due to their ability to carry both hydrophobic and hydrophilic molecules, including small molecules, proteins, and nucleic acids. They hold the distinction of being the first nanomedicine delivery platform to transition successfully from theory to clinical use. Several liposomal drug formulations have received approval and have been effectively incorporated into medical practice.

Conventional liposomes are characterized by one or more lipid bilayer rings enclosing an aqueous core, but not all LNPs possess a continuous bilayer that would categorize them as lipid vesicles or liposomes. Additionally, LNPs feature a solid lipid core rather than the aqueous core of liposomes. This improves stability and provides a safe location for storing hydrophobic payloads. These attributes let LNPs encapsulate a wide range of nucleic acids (RNA and DNA), making them the most favored non-viral system for gene delivery. Additionally, they are versatile enough to use with several other payload types, such as small molecules or proteins.

Types of Lipid Based Structures

In addition to basic liposomes (A) and drug-loaded liposomes (B) which encapsulate a payload within their core, targeted liposomes (C) and stealth liposomes (D) are alternative methods used for drug delivery and treatment. Targeted liposomes (C) have ligands attatched to their surfaces that allow for them to target and bind to specific receptors of cells. These categories of liposomes have been used for a variety of therapeutic applications such as cancer therapy or anti-inflammation therapy (e.g. targeting Crohn's disease.) However, a major limitation is targeted removal of these liposomes by phagocytes. Stealth liposomes (D) aim to address this limitation; by coating the outer layer with polymers such as PEG, they are invisible to phagocytes and allow the liposome to avoid the body's natural immune system which can be extremely useful for drug delivery.

In response to these and other limitations of liposomes, such as their low encapsulation efficiency, new nanoparticle drug delivery systems were developed. Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) (F) and nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) (E) were two types of nanoparticles designed to fill in these gaps. SLNs consist of solid lipids, while NLCs are formed with a mixture of solid and liquid-crystalline lipids. Both SLNs and NLCs have particle sizes ranging from 40 to 1000 nm and offer improved physical stability compared to liposomes. They also have higher drug loading capacities, better bioavailability, and can be more easily produced at a large scale without the need of organic solvents. Moreover, SLN and NLC can precisely control drug release due to reduced molecular mobility in their solid state. However, one limitation of SLNs is that they can expel drugs during long-term storage due to crystallization. NLCs are able to bypass this obstacle by incorporating small amounts of liquid lipids to reduce lipid core crystallinity, resulting in enhanced drug-loading capacity and long-term stability. SLNs and NLCs are typically manufactured using organic solvent-free techniques, such as high-pressure homogenization, emulsion/solvent evaporation, and solvent injection, minimizing the issues associated with liposome development.