Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 21, Issue 27, 2015

Nucleic acid therapeutics has huge potential for the treatment of a wide range of diseases including respiratory diseases. Plasmid DNA (pDNA) and small interfering RNA (siRNA) are the two most widely investigated nucleic acids for therapeutic development. However, efficient and safe delivery of nucleic acids is still a major hurdle in translating nucleic acid therapy into clinical practice. For the treatment of respiratory diseases, a Read More

The pulmonary dosing route has been advocated as an attractive alternative to injection and oral administration for the systemic delivery of therapeutic peptides and proteins. The lung possesses many favorable physiological characteristics for systemic absorption of inhaled peptides/proteins, so inhalable formulation systems of these drugs have generated considerable interest as a valid and non-invasive dosi Read More

Lung infections may be bacterial, viral or fungal and they are typically treated with oral or parenteral antibiotics. Inhaled dry powder formulations offer unique opportunities for treating lung infections with enhanced effectiveness and stability. Since drug delivery to the lungs requires chronic and repeated administration of larger amounts of therapeutics, dry powder formulations are attractive alternatives to deliver drugs dire Read More

Dry powder inhalers have become increasingly attractive for pulmonary delivery of locally and systemically effective medications. In comparison to the liquid counterparts, such as nebulisation and pressurised metered dose inhalers, the powder form generally offers better chemical stability, improved portability and potentially superior patient adherence. Currently, the aerosol performance between dry powder inhalers varies Read More

Chinese medicine (CM) in inhalation therapy has a long history of applications since ancient China in the forms of smoke, steam vapor, medicated pillows and aromatic sachets. Over the years, thousands of clinical treatments involving the inhalation of CMs have been reported for the treatment of respiratory disease. Shuanghuanglian, Yuxingcao and Qingkailing are primarily applied in pneumonia and bronchitis. At present, mete Read More

Dry powder inhalers (DPIs) usually contain drug particles <6 μm which agglomerate and/ or adhere on the surfaces of large carriers particles. The detachment of drug particles from carriers and de-agglomeration of drug particles into primary particles is essential for drug deposition in the deep lung. These processes are influenced by the surface energy of particles. Inverse gas chromatography (IGC) has been used to determine Read More

This paper provides a review on key research findings in the rapidly developing area of pharmaceutical aerosol electrostatics. Solids and liquids can become charged without electric fields, the former by contact or friction and the latter by flowing or spraying. Therefore, charged particles and droplets carrying net charges are produced from pharmaceutical inhalers (e.g. dry powder inhalers, metered dose inhalers, and nebulis Read More

Advances in particle engineering techniques, such as spray drying, freeze drying and supercritical fluid precipitation, have greatly enhanced the ability to control the structure, morphology, and solid state phase of inhalable sized particles (1 - 5 μm) for formulation in pressurized metered dose inhalers (pMDI). To optimize the properties of these engineered particles for formulation in hydrofluoroalkane propellants (HFA 134a / 22 Read More

The performance of a dry powder inhaler (DPI) depends on powder properties as well as the air and particle flows in the device. The main principle of powder dispersion is to overcome the inter-particle cohesion using various dispersion/ de-agglomeration forces. While different dispersion mechanisms have been identified, their relative importance under different conditions is less clear. The lack of understanding of these Read More

Dry powder inhalers are one of the most popular devices for delivering medication directly to the lungs of patients. Both for local action and when using the lungs as a portal of entry into the systemic circulation. Dry powder inhalers rely on the patient’s inspiratory effort to supply the energy for the device to effectively deliver medication. In this respect they are limited by the airway pressures that a patient can generate with thei Read More

The lung dose of inhaled pharmaceutical aerosol that an individual will receive from an inhaler can now be more accurately estimated in light of recent extrathoracic deposition modeling that has correlated characteristic airway dimensions with deposition. This paper first summarizes the current state of extrathoracic deposition models, including recent developments that have quantified the effects of aerosol electrostatic Read More