TY - BOOK

T1 - Combination of Microfluidics with SAXS for the investigation of pharmaceutical formulations

AU - Ghazal, Aghiad

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - Due to the latest advancements in microfluidics and synchrotron facilities, researchers startedexploring the possibility of harnessing the benefits of combining both fields of science toaddress questions that were deemed unanswerable. Moreover, this combination madeexperiments that were believed to be impossible to perform, more practically viable,financially affordable and doable in a reasonable time.Some of the questions that have eluded scientists include understanding the very earlystructural kinetics behind the folding of proteins, which experimentally became possibleusing microfluidic systems. X-ray compatible microfluidic systems proved reliable andsuitable for performing protein-folding experiments all the while permitting the probing of Xrayradiation to detect reactions in the microsecond scale.Other questions include understanding the early interaction of Ca2+ ions with drugnanocarriers and the effect it has on its internal structure. Such experiments provide valuableinformation for future investigations of the drug release activity of the nanocarriers.The combination of microfluidics and synchrotron X-ray is also exploited to addressbiological questions, however, other non-biological experiments have also made use of thissuccessful merger to discover novel rheological phenomena that can only occur on amicroscale in microchannels under non-equilibrium conditions due to strain and shear forces.Being able to perform a range of experiments with as little as few nanoliters of sample,opened the door for investigating expensive samples with a large number of experimentalparameters compared to conventional methods where only few experimental parameters wereaddressed with samples as large as few milliliters in volume required.The successful merger of microfluidics and synchrotron X-ray inspired us to exploreinteresting nanoparticles that have been gaining interest in the recent years for drug delivery applications and bio-imaging. These drug nanocarriers are superior in terms of theirefficiency in solubilizing various drugs and may help in controlling their release. They arelipid based, non-lamellar with a cubic and hexagonal crystalline internal structure thus calledcubosomes and hexosomes, respectively.Unfortunately, information about the early formation of these nanocarriers and theirinteraction with drug and other molecules is scarce in literature due to the lack of efficienttools to investigate them thoroughly. Therefore, we became enthusiastic about performingmixing experiments on these nanoparticles using microfluidics while performing in situcharacterization using synchrotron small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). We were able tolocate the time range at which these nanocarriers start interacting with molecules and observethem as they evolve under non-equilibrium conditions to form the final product.

AB - Due to the latest advancements in microfluidics and synchrotron facilities, researchers startedexploring the possibility of harnessing the benefits of combining both fields of science toaddress questions that were deemed unanswerable. Moreover, this combination madeexperiments that were believed to be impossible to perform, more practically viable,financially affordable and doable in a reasonable time.Some of the questions that have eluded scientists include understanding the very earlystructural kinetics behind the folding of proteins, which experimentally became possibleusing microfluidic systems. X-ray compatible microfluidic systems proved reliable andsuitable for performing protein-folding experiments all the while permitting the probing of Xrayradiation to detect reactions in the microsecond scale.Other questions include understanding the early interaction of Ca2+ ions with drugnanocarriers and the effect it has on its internal structure. Such experiments provide valuableinformation for future investigations of the drug release activity of the nanocarriers.The combination of microfluidics and synchrotron X-ray is also exploited to addressbiological questions, however, other non-biological experiments have also made use of thissuccessful merger to discover novel rheological phenomena that can only occur on amicroscale in microchannels under non-equilibrium conditions due to strain and shear forces.Being able to perform a range of experiments with as little as few nanoliters of sample,opened the door for investigating expensive samples with a large number of experimentalparameters compared to conventional methods where only few experimental parameters wereaddressed with samples as large as few milliliters in volume required.The successful merger of microfluidics and synchrotron X-ray inspired us to exploreinteresting nanoparticles that have been gaining interest in the recent years for drug delivery applications and bio-imaging. These drug nanocarriers are superior in terms of theirefficiency in solubilizing various drugs and may help in controlling their release. They arelipid based, non-lamellar with a cubic and hexagonal crystalline internal structure thus calledcubosomes and hexosomes, respectively.Unfortunately, information about the early formation of these nanocarriers and theirinteraction with drug and other molecules is scarce in literature due to the lack of efficienttools to investigate them thoroughly. Therefore, we became enthusiastic about performingmixing experiments on these nanoparticles using microfluidics while performing in situcharacterization using synchrotron small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). We were able tolocate the time range at which these nanocarriers start interacting with molecules and observethem as they evolve under non-equilibrium conditions to form the final product.

UR - https://soeg.kb.dk/permalink/45KBDK_KGL/fbp0ps/alma99122651745705763

M3 - Ph.D. thesis

BT - Combination of Microfluidics with SAXS for the investigation of pharmaceutical formulations

PB - The Niels Bohr Institute, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen

ER -