Abstract
Drug delivery is a procedure to transport drugs to an appropriate site for effective action, achieving the benefits of drugs. In the past few decades, nano-sized drug particles have attracted many researchers to develop an efficient drug delivery system. Microfluidic technology, for its ability to synthesize precise nanoparticles with uniform size, has emerged as a reliable technology for drug delivery. The microreactor has been established as a promising device due to its ability to provide intensive mixing in low-dimension microchannels having a high surface-to-volume ratio. It synthesizes drug particles with higher encapsulation efficiency and uniform particle size. The enhancement in the encapsulation efficiency results in the controlled release of drug particles at the appropriate site for effective medication. In addition, other applications of microreactors to synthesize various organic and inorganic nanoparticles are also discussed in this chapter.
TopIntroduction
To achieve the benefits of drugs, targeting the drug particle at a suitable site is necessary, which can be achieved by the proper drug delivery system (Y. Zhang et al., 2013). The four key considerations for a successful drug delivery system are: retain, evade, target, and discharge (Mills & Needham, 1999). In recent years, researchers are very much interested in achieving an advanced targeted drug delivery system to enhance the effectiveness of drugs (Riahi et al., 2015). In targeted drug delivery, the medicine is transported to a specific location to boost the medication concentration at the particular site. This increases the drug’s effectiveness and reduces its adverse effects. Since the drug's influence on the rest of the body is reduced which lowers total toxicity. (Manzari et al., 2021). However, the fundamental problems during drug delivery are the safe transfer of medicines to pathogenic areas, solubility for water-insoluble drugs, and regulated release (Azimullah et al., 2019). In most of the research, nano-carriers are utilized for targeted drug delivery to overcome these issues. The nanocarriers are advantageous because of their lower size, enhanced solubility, bio-availability, high drug loading, drug-releasing capacity, and high surface-to-volume ratio (Gagliardi et al., 2021; Shah et al., 2021; Singh & Lillard, 2009). Several therapeutic nanoparticle systems are currently being investigated, but the polymer-based nanoparticle as a drug carrier is emerging as an adequate solution (Anju et al., 2020). Such drug-loaded nanocarriers have demonstrated good consistent drug release kinetics, a longer systemic circulation half-life, and low adverse effects (Farooq et al., 2019).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Nanoparticles: A matter particle with a dimension of between one and one hundred nanometres is referred to as a nanoparticle or ultrafine particle.
Evaporation: Evaporation takes place on the surface of a liquid as it transitions into the gas phase.
Organic Compound: Any chemical substance that has carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds is considered an organic compound.
Inorganic Compound: Inorganic matter is defined as material that is not formed from living things and does not include any carbon that was created biologically.
Drug-Delivery: The term “drug delivery” describes the methods, formulations, manufacturing processes, storage arrangements, and technology used to transfer a pharmaceutical molecule to its intended target location.
Microfluidics: Microfluidics is the study of how fluids behave, are precisely controlled, and are moved on a microscopic scale where surface forces outweigh volumetric forces.
Polymers: A polymer is a substance or material made up of macromolecules, which are very big molecules made up of several repeating subunits.