Development of asolectin-based lipid carriers by continuous flow system

Nanoformulation of drugs is a highly important task in medicine to improve their solubility and dissolution. The lipid-based drug delivery systems (LBDDS) facilitate the encapsulation of a broad range of therapeutic agents. Preparation techniques have evolved from simple laboratory "bench" methods to sophisticated, high-throughput technologies. More recently, methods that offer precision, reproducibility, and scalability are in focus as the microfluidics. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to demonstrate an optimized fabrication protocol of lipid-based colloidal carriers using a low-cost cleaned asolectin (ASO) with a continuously operating basic flow system that offers precise control and high reproducibility. We pointed out how the hydrodynamic diameter, stability, and encapsulation efficiency (EE) can be highly controlled by the initial parameters (flow conditions, pH, storage time, dialysis time, etc.). Tocopherol (TP) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) were used as the model drug and stabilizer, respectively. Drug-free carriers having 130 180 nm diameter and 190 300 nm drug-loaded colloids can be fabricated, and it can be confirmed that by nanoformulation the aqueous solubility of TP was increased by 17 20 times. We evaluated the effect of NaCl concentration and pH on the colloids’ stability. The application of the PVA stabilizer slightly increases the EE from 68.6% for ASO/TP to 78.4% for ASO/TP/PVA at a dialysis time of 120 min, and it also enables significant drug retention. In addition to diffusion-controlled processes, the presence of the stabilizer increases the role of carrier erosion, according to the fitting of the dissolution data with different kinetic models. • The flow technique is capable of preparing asolectin-based drug carrier particles. • Size, stability, and formulation ability can be greatly controlled by flow conditions. • Lipid-based nanoformulation of tocopherol increases its water solubility by ∼20 times. • Use of polyvinyl alcohol as a stabilizer enhances the formulation and drug retention.