Capillary microfluidics-derived doxorubicin-containing human serum albumin microbeads for transarterial chemoembolization of hepatic cancer

Bisphosphonate-Conjugated Photo-Crosslinking Polyanionic Hyaluronic Acid Microbeads for Controlled BMP2 Delivery and Enhanced Bone Formation Efficacy

In this study, we designed bisphosphonate-conjugated polyanionic hyaluronic acid (HA) microbeads (MBs) for the controlled delivery of bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2). MBs were prepared via the photo-crosslinking of bisphosphonate (alendronate)-conjugated methacrylated HA (Alen-MHA). The polyanionic Alen-MHA MBs actively absorbed cationic BMP2 up to 91.0% of the loading efficacy and displayed a sustained release of BMP2 for 10 days. BMP2/Alen-MHA MBs induced osteogenic-related genes in cellular experiments and showed the highly increased bone formation efficacy in thigh muscle injection and rat spinal fusion animal models. Thus, BMP2/Alen-MHA MBs provide a promising opportunity to improve the delivery efficiency of BMP2.

Preparation of Heat-Denatured Macroaggregated Albumin for Biomedical Applications Using a Microfluidics Platform

Albumin is widely used in pharmaceutical applications to alter the pharmacokinetic profile, improve efficacy, or decrease the toxicity of active compounds. Various drug delivery systems using albumin have been reported, including microparticles. Macroaggregated albumin (MAA) is one of the more common forms of albumin microparticles, which is predominately used for lung perfusion imaging when labeled with radionuclide technetium-99m (^99mTc). These microparticles are formed by heat-denaturing albumin in a bulk solution, making it very challenging to control the size and dispersity of the preparations (coefficient of variation, CV, ∼50%). In this work, we developed an integrated microfluidics platform to create more tunable and precise MAA particles, the so-called microfluidic-MAA (M2A2). The microfluidic chips, prepared using off-stoichiometry thiol-ene chemistry, consist of a flow-focusing region followed by an extended and water-heated curing channel (85 °C). M2A2 particles with diameters between 70 and 300 μm with CVs between 10 and 20% were reliably prepared by adjusting the flow rates of the dispersed and continuous phases. To demonstrate the pharmaceutical utility of M2A2, particles were labeled with indium-111 (¹¹¹In) and their distribution was assessed in healthy mice using nuclear imaging. ¹¹¹In-M2A2 behaved similarly to ^99mTc-MAA, with lung uptake predominately observed early on followed by clearance over time by the reticuloendothelial and renal systems. Our microfluidic chip represents an elegant and controllable method to prepare albumin microparticles for biomedical applications.

Core–shell particles for drug-delivery, bioimaging, sensing, and tissue engineering

Core–shell particles offer significant advantages in their use for bioimaging and biosensors.

Thiol-ene Monolithic Pepsin Microreactor with a 3D-Printed Interface for Efficient UPLC-MS Peptide Mapping Analyses

To improve the sample handling, and reduce cost and preparation time, of peptide mapping LC-MS workflows in protein analytical research, we here investigate the possibility of replacing conventional enzymatic digestion methods with a polymer microfluidic chip based enzyme reactor. Off-stoichiometric thiol-ene is utilized as both bulk material and as a monolithic stationary phase for immobilization of the proteolytic enzyme pepsin. The digestion efficiency of the, thiol-ene based, immobilized enzyme reactor (IMER) is compared to that of a conventional, agarose packed bed, pepsin IMER column commonly used in LC-MS based protein analyses. The chip IMER is found to rival the conventional column in terms of digestion efficiency at comparable residence time and, using a 3D-printed interface, be directly interfaceable with LC-MS.