A high-throughput microfluidic device will help researchers characterize nanoscale-sized pharmaceutical delivery systems, according to researchers in California. The device offers a more accurate alternative to bulk measurement of nanoparticles, the lead researcher said.

 

“Nanoparticles are increasingly being developed as vehicles for drug delivery, but the lack of characterization tools for these particles has posed a significant obstacle to their development as effective therapeutics. Our analyzer offers the accuracy and size resolution required for these applications,” said Jean-Luc Fraikin, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Nanomedicine of the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

 

Dr. Fraikin is first author of a study describing the analyzer in Nature Nanotechnology (Fraikin JL, Teesalu T, McKenney CM, et al. [Published online ahead of print March 6, 2011.] Nat Nanotechnol.) from Fraikin JL, Teesalu T, McKenney CM, et al. [Published online ahead of print March 6, 2011.] Nat Nanotechnol .

 

The device measured the volume of each nanoparticle in a complex mixture at a rate of 500,000 particles per second, according to the paper. The instrument was also capable of detecting bacterial virus particles in saline solution and in mouse plasma, the researchers reported.

 

“The most common tools for sizing nanoparticles have relied on bulk measurements, which suffer from poor size resolution and an inability to detect rare particles in a sample,” Dr. Fraikin said in an e-mail to PFQ. “This analyzer distinguishes between particles differing in size by a few percent, and, because it counts individual particles, enables the detection of even the rarest particles. These features permit the detection of contaminants that were either too close in size to the desired product or too rare to be detected using previous methods.”

 

Source:PFQ