Microfluidics in drug delivery: review of methods and applications

Abstract

Microfluidics technology has emerged as a promising methodology for the fabrication of a wide variety of advanced drug delivery systems. Owing to its ability for accurate handling and processing of small quantities of fluidics as well as immense control over physicochemical properties of fabricated micro and nanoparticles (NPs), microfluidic technology has significantly improved the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs. This emerging technology has offered numerous advantages over the conventional drug delivery methods for fabricating of a variety of micro and nanocarriers for poorly soluble drugs. In addition, a microfluidic system can be designed for targeted drug delivery aiming to increase the local bioavailability of drugs. This review spots the light on the recent advances made in the area of microfluidics including various methods of fabrication of drug carriers, their characterization, and unique features. Furthermore, applications of microfluidic technology for the robust fabrication and development of drug delivery systems, the existing challenges associated with conventional fabrication methodologies as well as the proposed solutions offered by microfluidic technology have been discussed in details.

Highlights

• Microfluidic technology has revolutionized fabrication of tunable micro and nanocarriers.

• Microfluidic platforms offer several advantages over the conventional fabrication methods.

• Microfluidic devices hold great promise in controlling the physicochemical features of fabricated drug carriers.

• Micro and nanocarriers with controllable release kinetics and site-targeting efficiency can be fabricated.

• Drug carriers fabricated by microfluidic technology exhibited improved pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Controlled release
• drug delivery
• microfluidics
• microfluidic system
• nanoemulsions
• nanoparticles

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this article.