Nanoparticle-based chemotherapeutics have gained widespread interest in medicine due to their tunable pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Various drug delivery vehicles have been developed including polymer, liposome nanoparticles, and some of them have already made clinical impacts. Despite these advances, drug payload of these formulations is limited (typically <10%). Here, we report a general and scalable approach to prepare lipid-coated solid drug nanoparticles by combining flash nanoprecipitation and extrusion technique, which enables optimization of individual steps separately and flexibility in selection of nanoparticle surface functionalities. Using methotrexate as a model drug, the nanoparticles significantly outperformed free drug in tumor growth suppression.
Keywords: cancer therapy; drug delivery; flash nanoprecipitation; nanoparticles; targeting.