Abstract
This thesis presents the development of magnetic lipid nanoparticles can serve as controlled delivery vehicles and release encapsulated drugs in a desired manner. The nanovesicles are composed of multiple drugs and lipids, which are solid at body temperature while melted around 45 to 55 °C. In addition, super-paramagnetic g-Fe2O3 particles with diameters ranging from 5 to 25 nm are surface modified and dispersed uniformly in the lipid nanovesicles. In the prototype demonstration, lipid nanovesicles with average diameters between 100 and 150 nm were fabricated by high-pressure emulsification processes at raised temperatures. When exposed to an alternating magnetic field of 60 kA/m at 25 kHz, a solution with 2 g/L g-Fe2O3 showed a temperature rise from 37 to 50℃in 20 minutes. Meanwhile, the dissipated heat melted the lipids and resulted in an accelerated release of encapsulated drugs. It was verified that roughly 35% of the encapsulated drug (Tetracaine) was released from the nanovesicles. As such, the presented lipid nanovesicles pioneer a new scheme for magnetically control of heating and drug delivery, which could greatly enhance the performance of associated drugs.