Pulmonary drug targeting

Inhalation therapy with its benefit of reduced systemic side effects should be used for the therapy of pulmonary diseases whenever local therapy is able to achieve its therapeutic goals. Drug targeting should reduce the dose required to... 

The lung comprises about 40 different cell types, amongst which type I and type II alveolar epithelial cells are the major types targeted by pulmonary drug delivery systems. Type I cells play an important role in the absorption process of proteins, while type II cells produce surfactant, regulate the immune response, and serve... 

A nanoparticle is a microscopic particle with a diameter less than 100 nm. Nanoparticles were first developed around 1970, and initially they were devised as carriers for vaccines and anticancer drugs. Nanoparticle research is currently an area of intense scientific research because of a wide variety of potential applications in biomedical, optical, and electronic fields. To enhance tumor uptake, the strategy of drug targeting was employed, and as a first important step, research focused on the development of methods to reduce the uptake of the nanoparticles by the RES cells. Simultaneously, the use of nanoparticles for ophthalmic and oral delivery was investigated (17, 18). Recent advancement of nanoparticles and nanosuspensions was caused by their application for pulmonary drug delivery (19, 20). 

Another motivation for particle size reduction of APIs is to facilitate getting the compound to a desired area of the body. For example, pulmonary drug delivery by dry powder inhalation is an administration route where particle size reduction is required to achieve drug delivery to the target region of the lung. The aerodynamic diameter of a particle should be in... 

Li H-Y, Neill H, Innocent R, Seville P, William.son I. Birchatl iC. Enhanced dispersibility and deposition of spray-dried powders for pulmonary gene therapy, i Drug Target 2003 II 425-32. 

RECENT ADVANCES IN THE DESIGN OF DRUG MOLECULES FOR PULMONARY RECEPTOR TARGETING... 

Kostenbauder HB, Sloneker S. Prodrags for pulmonary drag targeting. In Byron PR, ed. Respiratory Drug Delivery. Boca Raton, FL CRC Press, 1990 91-106. 

Beaulac C, Sachetelli S, Lagace J. Aerosolization of low phase transition temperature liposomal tobramycin as a dry powder in an animal model of chronic pulmonary infection caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. J Drug Target 7(1) 33-41, 1999. 

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