Does upper airway deformation affect drug deposition?

Shaokoon Cheng; Agisilaos Kourmatzis; Taye Mekonnen; Hanieh Gholizadeh; Joel Raco; Lan Chen; Patricia Tang; Hak-Kim Chan

doi:10.1016/j.ijpharm.2019.118773

Does upper airway deformation affect drug deposition?

Int J Pharm. 2019 Dec 15:572:118773. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2019.118773. Epub 2019 Oct 31.

Authors

Shaokoon Cheng¹, Agisilaos Kourmatzis², Taye Mekonnen¹, Hanieh Gholizadeh¹, Joel Raco¹, Lan Chen³, Patricia Tang⁴, Hak-Kim Chan⁵

Affiliations

¹ Macquarie University, School of Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering Sydney, Australia.
² University of Sydney, School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, Sydney, Australia.
³ Hangzhou Chance Pharmaceuticals, Hangzhou, China.
⁴ University of Sydney, Sydney Pharmacy School, Advanced Drug Delivery Group, Sydney, Australia.
⁵ University of Sydney, Sydney Pharmacy School, Advanced Drug Delivery Group, Sydney, Australia. Electronic address: kim.chan@sydney.edu.au.

PMID: 31678391
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2019.118773

Abstract

Knowledge that enables the accurate simulation of drug deposition in the human upper airway is necessary to develop robust platforms for efficient drug delivery by inhalation devices. The human upper airway is deformable during inhalation but how it could affect the deposition of inhaled drugs is unknown. We aimed to determine whether pharyngeal deformation at the soft palate level would have any significant effects on throat deposition, in vitro lung dose and fine particle fraction. In this study, dry mannitol powders were delivered to the next-generation cascade impactor (NGI) through the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) throat, and a realistic upper airway cast (RUPAC) at flow rates of 40, 60 and 80 L min^-1. Deformation of the upper airway at 25%, 50%, and 75% in the lateral and antero-posterior directions were experimentally simulated in the RUPAC. Throat deposition (p = 0.04) is significantly affected when the upper airway deforms laterally but not antero-posteriorly.

Keywords: Fine particle fraction; In vitro lung dose; Pharynx collapse; Throat deposition; Upper airway deformation.

MeSH terms

Administration, Inhalation
Aerosols / metabolism*
Drug Delivery Systems / methods
Dry Powder Inhalers / methods
Female
Humans
Lung / metabolism*
Middle Aged
Particle Size
Pharynx / metabolism*
Powders / administration & dosage
Powders / metabolism*

Substances

Aerosols
Powders