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News and Events > Method and Apparatus Using Electrostatic Atomization to Form Liquid Vesicles
Method and Apparatus Using Electrostatic Atomization to Form Liquid Vesicles
Compelling Need
Liposomes encapsulating an aqueous core have been proposed for drug delivery and gene therapy. Although liposomes have been formulated such that a long circulating half-life is achieved, the encapsulation of drugs within the lipid bilayer can be inefficient. Typical encapsulation procedures involve the rehydration of a dried lipid film with a drug-containing solution such that drug is encapsulated upon vesicle formation. This traditional approach yields encapsulation efficiencies of < 10%, with the bulk of the drug remaining outside of the liposome. The removal of the unencapsulated drug is labor-intensive, costly, and results in substantial losses of both drug and lipid.
Market
Encapsulation is used in a variety of well-known applications such as scratch-and-sniff perfumes, carbonless copy paper, laundry detergent, packaged baking mixes, and pharmaceutical drugs for taste masking and sustained release. Drug delivery systems account for $54 billion in annual revenue. US demand for drug delivery systems will grow nine percent annually through 2007.
Technology
The technology is an electrostatic co-extrusion manufacturing process for the production of liposomes. The process utilizes electrostatic spraying (Electro-Hydrodynamic breakup EHD) to form an aqueous droplet while another miscible fluid containing the encapsulating material (“shell”) is simultaneously extruded around the aqueous droplet. In this manner, encapsulated vesicles are produced individually with 100% encapsulation efficiency. The fluids are miscible; however the outer fluid contains dissolved lipids which, once in contact with the hydrophobic interface of water, rearrange themselves to create a membrane shell. Inital work has demonstrated that the investigators can alter the thickness of the outer layer, and encapsulate water-soluble substances within a phospholipid “shell”. Lipids represent only one type of material that can potentially be used for encapsulation, and this invention has broad applications to drug delivery, cosmetics and the food industry as well as the encapsulation of water-soluble substances within a variety of materials. The purpose of such individually formed liposomes is to improve the efficiency of liposome manufacturing by optimizing encapsulation, shell thickness and particulate size, leading to decreased cost.
Significant Advantages of this Platform:
- 100% encapsulation efficiency
- Broad applications: drug delivery, cosmetics, and the food industry
- Reduced manufacturing costs
Intellectual Property
This technology has been patented and is available for licensing. Additional information is available upon request. Contact the Technology Transfer Office at 303-735-2298, reference # CU1091H
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