The Power of Field-Flow Fractionation in Characterization of Nanoparticles in Drug Delivery

Overview

Journal Molecules

Publisher MDPI

Specialty Biology

Date 2023 May 27

PMID 37241911

Authors

Juan Bian

Nemal Gobalasingham

Anatolii Purchel

Jessica Lin

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Asymmetric-flow field-flow fractionation (AF4) is a gentle, flexible, and powerful separation technique that is widely utilized for fractionating nanometer-sized analytes, which extend to many emerging nanocarriers for drug delivery, including lipid-, virus-, and polymer-based nanoparticles. To ascertain quality attributes and suitability of these nanostructures as drug delivery systems, including particle size distributions, shape, morphology, composition, and stability, it is imperative that comprehensive analytical tools be used to characterize the native properties of these nanoparticles. The capacity for AF4 to be readily coupled to multiple online detectors (MD-AF4) or non-destructively fractionated and analyzed offline make this technique broadly compatible with a multitude of characterization strategies, which can provide insight on size, mass, shape, dispersity, and many other critical quality attributes. This review will critically investigate MD-AF4 reports for characterizing nanoparticles in drug delivery, especially those reported in the last 10-15 years that characterize multiple attributes simultaneously downstream from fractionation.

Citing Articles

When Extracellular Vesicles Go Viral: A Bird's Eye View.

Margolis L, Sadovsky Y Pathog Immun. 2025; 10(1):140-158.

PMID: 40017586 PMC: 11867185. DOI: 10.20411/pai.v10i1.787.

Application of nanomaterials in precision treatment of lung cancer.

Zhang C, Fan J, Wu L iScience. 2025; 28(1):111704.

PMID: 39886464 PMC: 11780121. DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.111704.

Nanoscale Extracellular Vesicle-Enabled Liquid Biopsy: Advances and Challenges for Lung Cancer Detection.

Khan A, Raza F, He N Micromachines (Basel). 2024; 15(10).

PMID: 39459055 PMC: 11509190. DOI: 10.3390/mi15101181.

Development of an advanced separation and characterization platform for mRNA and lipid nanoparticles using multi-detector asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation.

Gao Z, Lin J, Su W, Zhang K, Gruenhagen J, Zhong W Anal Bioanal Chem. 2024; 416(24):5281-5293.

PMID: 39102094 DOI: 10.1007/s00216-024-05455-x.

Impact of Protein Nanoparticle Shape on the Immunogenicity of Antimicrobial Glycoconjugate Vaccines.

Dolce M, Proietti D, Principato S, Giusti F, Adamo G, Favaron S Int J Mol Sci. 2024; 25(7).

PMID: 38612547 PMC: 11011275. DOI: 10.3390/ijms25073736.

References

Boye S, Polikarpov N, Appelhans D, Lederer A . An alternative route to dye-polymer complexation study using asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation. J Chromatogr A. 2010; 1217(29):4841-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.chroma.2010.05.036. View

Yao Y, Zhou Y, Liu L, Xu Y, Chen Q, Wang Y . Nanoparticle-Based Drug Delivery in Cancer Therapy and Its Role in Overcoming Drug Resistance. Front Mol Biosci. 2020; 7:193. PMC: 7468194. DOI: 10.3389/fmolb.2020.00193. View

Wagner M, Holzschuh S, Traeger A, Fahr A, Schubert U . Asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation in the field of nanomedicine. Anal Chem. 2014; 86(11):5201-10. DOI: 10.1021/ac501664t. View

Akbarzadeh A, Rezaei-Sadabady R, Davaran S, Joo S, Zarghami N, Hanifehpour Y . Liposome: classification, preparation, and applications. Nanoscale Res Lett. 2013; 8(1):102. PMC: 3599573. DOI: 10.1186/1556-276X-8-102. View

Kowalkowski T, Sugajski M, Buszewski B . Impact of Ionic Strength of Carrier Liquid on Recovery in Flow Field-Flow Fractionation. Chromatographia. 2018; 81(8):1213-1218. PMC: 6132554. DOI: 10.1007/s10337-018-3551-z. View

Wu B, Chen X, Wang J, Qing X, Wang Z, Ding X . Separation and characterization of extracellular vesicles from human plasma by asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation. Anal Chim Acta. 2020; 1127:234-245. DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2020.06.071. View

Rauf A, Abu-Izneid T, Khalil A, Hafeez N, Olatunde A, Rahman M . Nanoparticles in clinical trials of COVID-19: An update. Int J Surg. 2022; 104:106818. PMC: 9359769. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijsu.2022.106818. View

Fuentes C, Choi J, Zielke C, Penarrieta J, Lee S, Nilsson L . Comparison between conventional and frit-inlet channels in separation of biopolymers by asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation. Analyst. 2019; 144(15):4559-4568. DOI: 10.1039/c9an00466a. View

Gao Z, Hutchins Z, Li Z, Zhong W . Offline Coupling of Asymmetrical Flow Field-Flow Fractionation and Capillary Electrophoresis for Separation of Extracellular Vesicles. Anal Chem. 2022; 94(41):14083-14091. PMC: 9988405. DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.2c03550. View

10.

Fraunhofer W, Winter G . The use of asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation in pharmaceutics and biopharmaceutics. Eur J Pharm Biopharm. 2004; 58(2):369-83. DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpb.2004.03.034. View

11.

Oeyen E, Van Mol K, Baggerman G, Willems H, Boonen K, Rolfo C . Ultrafiltration and size exclusion chromatography combined with asymmetrical-flow field-flow fractionation for the isolation and characterisation of extracellular vesicles from urine. J Extracell Vesicles. 2018; 7(1):1490143. PMC: 6032024. DOI: 10.1080/20013078.2018.1490143. View

12.

Schmidt B, Loeschner K, Hadrup N, Mortensen A, Sloth J, Koch C . Quantitative characterization of gold nanoparticles by field-flow fractionation coupled online with light scattering detection and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Anal Chem. 2011; 83(7):2461-8. DOI: 10.1021/ac102545e. View

13.

Sharma K, Koirala A, Nicolopoulos K, Chiu C, Wood N, Britton P . Vaccines for COVID-19: Where do we stand in 2021?. Paediatr Respir Rev. 2021; 39:22-31. PMC: 8274273. DOI: 10.1016/j.prrv.2021.07.001. View

14.

Williams P, Carpino F, Zborowski M . Magnetic nanoparticle drug carriers and their study by quadrupole magnetic field-flow fractionation. Mol Pharm. 2009; 6(5):1290-306. PMC: 2757515. DOI: 10.1021/mp900018v. View

15.

Chang H, Yeh M . Clinical development of liposome-based drugs: formulation, characterization, and therapeutic efficacy. Int J Nanomedicine. 2012; 7:49-60. PMC: 3260950. DOI: 10.2147/IJN.S26766. View

16.

Amiri A, Bagherifar R, Dezfouli E, Kiaie S, Jafari R, Ramezani R . Exosomes as bio-inspired nanocarriers for RNA delivery: preparation and applications. J Transl Med. 2022; 20(1):125. PMC: 8919142. DOI: 10.1186/s12967-022-03325-7. View

17.

Witwer K, Goberdhan D, ODriscoll L, Thery C, Welsh J, Blenkiron C . Updating MISEV: Evolving the minimal requirements for studies of extracellular vesicles. J Extracell Vesicles. 2021; 10(14):e12182. PMC: 8710080. DOI: 10.1002/jev2.12182. View

18.

Citkowicz A, Petry H, Harkins R, Ast O, Cashion L, Goldmann C . Characterization of virus-like particle assembly for DNA delivery using asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation and light scattering. Anal Biochem. 2008; 376(2):163-72. DOI: 10.1016/j.ab.2008.02.011. View

19.

Mildner R, Hak S, Parot J, Hyldbakk A, Borgos S, Some D . Improved multidetector asymmetrical-flow field-flow fractionation method for particle sizing and concentration measurements of lipid-based nanocarriers for RNA delivery. Eur J Pharm Biopharm. 2021; 163:252-265. DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpb.2021.03.004. View

20.

Patra J, Das G, Fraceto L, Campos E, Del Pilar Rodriguez-Torres M, Acosta-Torres L . Nano based drug delivery systems: recent developments and future prospects. J Nanobiotechnology. 2018; 16(1):71. PMC: 6145203. DOI: 10.1186/s12951-018-0392-8. View