Evolutionary artificial neural networks as tools for predicting the internal structure of microemulsions.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to predict microemulsion structures by creating two artificial evolutionary neural networks (ANN) combined with a genetic algorithm. The first ANN would be able to determine the type of microemulsion from the desired composition, and the second to determine the type of microemulsion directly from a differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) curve. METHODS The algorithms and the structures for each ANN were constructed and programmed in C++ computer language. The ANNs had a feedforward structure with one hidden level and were trained using a genetic algorithm. DSC was used to determine the microemulsion type. RESULTS The ANNs showed very encouraging accuracy in predicting the microemulsion type from its composition and also directly from the DSC curve. The percentage success, calculated over the tested data, was over 90%. This enabled us, with satisfactory accuracy, to construct several pseudoternary diagrams that could facilitate the selection of the microemulsion composition to obtain the optimal desired drug carrier. CONCLUSIONS The ANN constructed here, enhanced with a genetic algorithm, is an effective tool for predicting the type of microemulsion. These findings provide the basis for reducing research time and development cost for characterizing microemulsion properties. Its application would stimulate the further development of such colloidal drug delivery systems, exploit their advantages and, to a certain extent, avoid their disadvantages.