Polymer encapsulation of fine particles by a supercritical antisolvent process

One-Step Method to Prepare PLLA Porous Microspheres in a High-Voltage Electrostatic Anti-Solvent Process

A one-step method using a high-voltage electrostatic anti-solvent process was employed to fabricate poly-l-lactide (PLLA) porous microspheres (PMs). To address the simplification and control of the preparation process, a 2⁴ full factorial experiment was performed to optimize the operating process and analyze the effect of the factors on the morphology and aerodynamic properties of the PLLA PMs, and various characterization tests were also performed. The resulting PLLA PMs exhibited an even and porous morphology with a density less than 0.4 g/cm³, a geometric mean diameter (Dg) of 10-30 μm, an aerodynamic diameter (Da) of 1-5 μm, a fine particle fraction (FPF) of 56.3%, and a porosity of 76.2%, meeting the requirements for pulmonary drug delivery. The physicochemical characterizations reveal that no significant chemical change occurred in the PLLA during the process. An investigation of its in vitro cytotoxicity and pulmonary toxicity shows no obvious toxic response, indicating good biosafety. This study indicates that the one-step method using a high-voltage electrostatic anti-solvent process has great potential in developing an inhalable drug carrier for pulmonary drug delivery.

Preparation of Nano-curcumin with Enhanced Dissolution Using Ultrasonic-Assisted Supercritical Anti-solvent Technique

Curcumin is the main gradient of “Turmeric” a famous Indian spice and food additive. The marvelous nutritional and medicinal effects of curcumin made it a good alternative to some conventional drugs and food flavoring or coloring materials. However, the low solubility of curcumin is a challenging hindrance which should be seriously addressed. In this work, we prepared nano-curcumin with enhanced aqueous dispersion and dissolution rate. Ultrasonic-assisted supercritical anti-solvent (UA-SAS) technique was used to convert the commercial curcumin to uniform distributed nano-particles with the average size of 20 nm and yielding of 65%. The effect of process parameters including pressure, temperature, solution flow rate, and nature of organic solvent on the average particle size and yielding of products was investigated. The morphology, size, and crystalline pattern of processed curcumin particles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, mean particle size analyzer, and X-ray diffraction. The champion specimen was achieved when the supercritical fluid was employed at 16 MPa and 35°C. Aqueous suspension of processed nano-curcumin can be stable for more than 2 months. In vitro dissolution experiments showed a remarkable enhancement in dissolution rate of UA-SAS-treated curcumin respecting to the commercial curcumin powder.

Biomimetic Hybrid Nanofiber Sheets Composed of RGD Peptide-Decorated PLGA as Cell-Adhesive Substrates

In biomedical applications, there is a need for tissue engineering scaffolds to promote and control cellular behaviors, including adhesion, proliferation and differentiation. In particular, the initial adhesion of cells has a great influence on those cellular behaviors. In this study, we concentrate on developing cell-adhesive substrates applicable for tissue engineering scaffolds. The hybrid nanofiber sheets were prepared by electrospinning poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) and M13 phage, which was genetically modified to enhance cell adhesion thru expressing RGD peptides on their surface. The RGD peptide is a specific motif of extracellular matrix (ECM) for integrin receptors of cells. RGD peptide-decorated PLGA (RGD-PLGA) nanofiber sheets were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, immunofluorescence staining, contact angle measurement and differential scanning calorimetry. In addition, the initial adhesion and proliferation of four different types of mammalian cells were determined in order to evaluate the potential of RGD-PLGA nanofiber sheets as cell-adhesive substrates. Our results showed that the hybrid nanofiber sheets have a three-dimensional porous structure comparable to the native ECM. Furthermore, the initial adhesion and proliferation of cells were significantly enhanced on RGD-PLGA sheets. These results suggest that biomimetic RGD-PLGA nanofiber sheets can be promising cell-adhesive substrates for application as tissue engineering scaffolds.

Chemical vapor deposition of conformal, functional, and responsive polymer films

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) polymerization utilizes the delivery of vapor-phase monomers to form chemically well-defined polymeric films directly on the surface of a substrate. CVD polymers are desirable as conformal surface modification layers exhibiting strong retention of organic functional groups, and, in some cases, are responsive to external stimuli. Traditional wet-chemical chain- and step-growth mechanisms guide the development of new heterogeneous CVD polymerization techniques. Commonality with inorganic CVD methods facilitates the fabrication of hybrid devices. CVD polymers bridge microfabrication technology with chemical, biological, and nanoparticle systems and assembly. Robust interfaces can be achieved through covalent grafting enabling high-resolution (60 nm) patterning, even on flexible substrates. Utilizing only low-energy input to drive selective chemistry, modest vacuum, and room-temperature substrates, CVD polymerization is compatible with thermally sensitive substrates, such as paper, textiles, and plastics. CVD methods are particularly valuable for insoluble and infusible films, including fluoropolymers, electrically conductive polymers, and controllably crosslinked networks and for the potential to reduce environmental, health, and safety impacts associated with solvents. Quantitative models aid the development of large-area and roll-to-roll CVD polymer reactors. Relevant background, fundamental principles, and selected applications are reviewed.

NSAID drugs release from injectable microspheres produced by supercritical fluid emulsion extraction

Supercritical fluid emulsion extraction is an innovative technology that uses supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO(2)) to extract the dispersed oily phase of an emulsion. This technology was used to produce poly-lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) microspheres charged with two common NSAIDs: piroxicam (PX) and diclophenac sodium (DF). Single (O/W) and double (W/O/W) emulsions were tested and a comparative study between the characteristics of the microspheres obtained by SC-CO(2) extraction and the ones produced by conventional solvent evaporation (SE) is proposed. Varying the droplet dimensions, microspheres with mean diameters (MDs) of 1, 2, and 3 microm were obtained; however, the microspheres produced by SC-CO(2) gave always a better reproduction of the MD of original droplets because aggregation phenomena often modify the mean size and distribution of the microparticles produced by SE. Moreover, very efficient drug loadings (88% w/w of DF in PLGA using W/O/W emulsion and 97% of PX w/w in PLGA starting from O/W emulsion) were measured in the products obtained by SC-CO(2), respectively; whereas, the SE produced a drug loading of 30% in the case of double emulsion and of 70% for single emulsion. Solvent residue of 10 ppm was also measured by SC-CO(2) technology against the 600 ppm of the SE products. The release profiles of the entrapped drugs were also monitored to check the structure of the microspheres produced by this new technology.

Development of core-shell microcapsules by a novel supercritical CO2 process

5-fluorouracil-SiO(2)-poly(L-lactide) (5-Fu-SiO(2)-PLLA) microcapsules were prepared in a novel process of solution-enhanced dispersion by supercritical CO(2) (SEDS). The SiO(2) nanoparticles were loaded with 5-Fu by adsorption at the first place, then the 5-Fu-SiO(2) nanoparticles were coated with PLLA by a modified SEDS process. The resulted microcapsules were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), laser diffraction particle size analyzer, Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) and thermogravimeter-differential scanning calorimeter (TG-DSC). The drug load, encapsulation efficiency and drug release profiles were also determined. The resulted microcapsules exhibited a rather spherical shape, smooth surface, and a narrow particle size distribution with a mean particle size of 536 nm. The drug load and encapsulation efficiency of the samples were 0.18% and 80.53%, respectively, 25.05% of 5-Fu was released in the first half hour, then drug released in a sustained process, which was much slower than that of without coated by PLLA. The results indicated that the modified SEDS process could be used to produce drug-polymer microcapsules with a core-shell structure, high encapsulation efficiency and sustained drug release effect.

Tailor-made surface properties of particles with a hydrophilic or hydrophobic polymer shell mediated by supercritical CO2

Controlling the surface characteristics of inorganic materials with an organic shell is of great interest for control of the properties of the final material. A challenge is thus to be able to deposit a polymer shell with different solvation properties onto the surface of inorganic particles and to have a good control of the thickness of the organic layer without a prefunctionalization of surfaces. We demonstrate, in this paper, a method for coating silica particles (170-550 nm), used as model substrates, with either a hydrophilic (polyethylene glycol) or a hydrophobic polymer (polybutadiene hydroxy terminated) using a supercritical antisolvent process (precipitation from a compressed antisolvent). Several operating parameters were studied to control precisely the thickness of the deposited layer (from 2 to 30 nm), which was characterized using TEM, FESEM, XPS, and UV-visible techniques. This work demonstrates that supercritical antisolvent processes are powerful methods and good alternatives to conventional coating techniques toward the development of hybrid and/or core-shell nanomaterials.

Study of poly(L-lactide) microparticles based on supercritical CO2

Poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) microparticles were prepared in supercritical anti-solvent process. The effects of several key factors on surface morphology, and particle size and particle size distribution were investigated. These factors included initial drops size, saturation ratio of PLLA solution, pressure, temperature, concentration of the organic solution, the flow rate of the solution and molecular weight of PLLA. The results indicated that the saturation ratio of PLLA solution, concentration of the organic solution and flow rate of the solution played important roles on the properties of products. Various microparticles with the mean particle size ranging from 0.64 to 6.64 microm, could be prepared by adjusting the operational parameters. Fine microparticles were obtained in a process namely solution-enhanced dispersion by supercritical fluids (SEDS) process with dichloromethane/acetone mixture as solution.

Dispersion and deagglomerat1on of nano-SiO2 particles with a silane modification reagent in supercritical CO2

The supercritical CO2 method was used in order to perform deagglomeration and improve the dispersion of nano-SiO2 particles. ?-Met-hacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane was used as the surface modification reagent. The conventional method for coating nano-SiO2 particles was used as the comparison method. Considerable improvement of the dispersion and deagglomeration was found using supercritical CO2. Analysis of the TEM micrographs and DLS results showed the reduction of the average size of the agglomerates with the silane coupling reagent. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that the particles treated in super?critical CO2 were more thermally stable than particles treated by conventional method. Encapsulation of several particles coated with the silane coupling reagent was observed in certain parts of the primary particles. A chemical reaction takes place between the modification reagent, MEMO silane, and active hydroxyl groups on the surface of the nano-SiO2 particles. A larger quantity of MEMO silane reacted using the con?ventional method instead of the supercritical method. On the other hand, the reacted silane molecules were better arranged around the particle surface in the supercritical method because of the formation of covalent or self-assembled structures. Polycondensed structures were preferentially obtained in the conventional method. This was achieved by using supercritical CO2, which has a high solvating power such as organic solvents and physical properties (low viscosity, low surface tension and high diffusion coefficient) similar to gases on the other side. These properties enable the sufficient and uniform wettability of nano-SiO2 particle surfaces. These results are important for obtaining nanofillers with improved dispersion and polymer wettability. Such nanofillers can be used to obtain composite materials with considerably improved mechanical characteristics.

Supercritical fluid technology for enhanced drug delivery

The rapid advances in the development of formulation and delivery systems based on micron-sized and nanoscale drug particles will create significant benefits to the pharmaceutical industry. Complementary to traditional methods, supercritical fluid techniques have found many useful, and sometimes unique, applications in the production and processing of drug particles. In this article background information is provided on a variety of supercritical fluid techniques relevant to drug formulation and delivery, recent advances and novel applications are highlighted, and the successful development of a new supercritical fluid rapid expansion technique for producing exclusively nanoscale drug particles will be discussed. Challenges and opportunities for further development and future applications are also reviewed.