Drug Delivery to the Lungs: Challenges and Opportunities
A special issue of Pharmaceuticals (ISSN 1424-8247). This special issue belongs to the section "Pharmaceutical Technology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 18231
Special Issue Editor
Interests: respiratory dynamics; inhalation toxicology; aerosol-based tumor diagnosis; personalized drug delivery; snoring and apnea; medical devices; machine learning
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Many challenges exist in delivering mediations to the lungs. These include the complex lung network structure, the low delivery efficiency of current inhalation devices, large uncertainties in dosimetry, and the sophisticated pharmacokinetics of deposited drugs.
Anatomically accurate lung models are needed to study inhalation therapies. Current CT-based patient-specific lung models are often limited to large branches due to low-resolution images, radiation exposure risks, and other ethical issues. It is not uncommon that based on on-shelf clinical chest CT scans, lung models can only be reconstructed to G3-G6, which cannot be used to study inhalation dosimetry in small airways. The knowledge of the dosimetry of drug products to both large and small airways is essential to develop a dose–outcome correlation. Moreover, lung anatomy and physiology can be significantly altered due to respiratory diseases, and the ensuing ventilation heterogeneity will change the dosimetry of inhaled medications, rendering previous correlations in healthy lungs less reliable.
Many other sources of uncertainty exist, which may significantly bias the dose–outcome correlation, such as age, gender, health, poor adherence, and poor inhaler technique. Once deposited to the target tissue, the pharmaceuticals can still face physical, chemical, and immunological barriers before they are able to take effect. Studies to understand and strategies to mitigate the impacts from these barriers will help to unfold the full benefits of inhalation therapies to the lungs.
In this Special Issue, we cordially invite submissions that tackle any aspects of these challenges, including but not limited to:
- Advances in computational fluid dynamics and other dosimetry models;
- Anatomical and physiological data of mammalian airways;
- Deposition and clearance of soluble aerosols;
- Doses to target tissues, including small airways and alveoli;
- In vitro testing of lung dosimetry;
- In vitro-in vivo correlation (IVIVC), animal models;
- Medical devices for pulmonary drug delivery;
- Mucosal clearance, alveolar clearance, long-term retention;
- Nanomedicines and vaccines;
- Pharmacokinetics of deposited medications;
- Viral and other bioaerosols.
Prof. Dr. Jinxiang Xi
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- pulmonary drug delivery
- lung remodeling
- dosimetry to target tissues
- lung clearance
- bioaerosols
- alveoli
- pharmacokinetics
- toxicology
- animal models
- data-driven diagnosis and therapy of lung diseases
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