Nano- and Microemulsions in Biomedicine: From Theory to Practice
Boris Nikolaev,
Ludmila Yakovleva,
Viacheslav Fedorov,
Hanmei Li,
Huile Gao,
Maxim Shevtsov
Affiliations
Boris Nikolaev
Laboratory of Biomedical Nanotechnologies, Institute of Cytology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Tikhoretsky Ave. 4, 194064 Saint Petersburg, Russia
Ludmila Yakovleva
Laboratory of Biomedical Nanotechnologies, Institute of Cytology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Tikhoretsky Ave. 4, 194064 Saint Petersburg, Russia
Viacheslav Fedorov
Laboratory of Biomedical Nanotechnologies, Institute of Cytology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Tikhoretsky Ave. 4, 194064 Saint Petersburg, Russia
Hanmei Li
School of Food and Biological Engineering, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, China
Huile Gao
Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China
Maxim Shevtsov
Laboratory of Biomedical Nanotechnologies, Institute of Cytology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Tikhoretsky Ave. 4, 194064 Saint Petersburg, Russia
Nano- and microemulsions are colloidal systems that are widely used in various fields of biomedicine, including wound and burn healing, cosmetology, the development of antibacterial and antiviral drugs, oncology, etc. The stability of these systems is governed by the balance of molecular interactions between nanodomains. Microemulsions as a colloidal form play a special important role in stability. The microemulsion is the thermodynamically stable phase from oil, water, surfactant and co-surfactant which forms the surface of drops with very small surface energy. The last phenomena determines the shortage time of all fluid dispersions including nanoemulsions and emulgels. This review examines the theory and main methods of obtaining nano- and microemulsions, particularly focusing on the structure of microemulsions and methods for emulsion analysis. Additionally, we have analyzed the main preclinical and clinical studies in the field of wound healing and the use of emulsions in cancer therapy, emphasizing the prospects for further developments in this area.
