A Pathway From Porous Particle Technology Toward Tailoring Aerogels for Pulmonary Drug Administration

Thoa Duong; Clara López-Iglesias; Piotr K Szewczyk; Urszula Stachewicz; Joana Barros; Carmen Alvarez-Lorenzo; Mohammad Alnaief; Carlos A García-González

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2021.671381

A Pathway From Porous Particle Technology Toward Tailoring Aerogels for Pulmonary Drug Administration

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2021 May 4:9:671381. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2021.671381. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Thoa Duong¹, Clara López-Iglesias¹, Piotr K Szewczyk², Urszula Stachewicz², Joana Barros³, Carmen Alvarez-Lorenzo¹, Mohammad Alnaief⁴, Carlos A García-González¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacology, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology, I+D Farma group (GI-1645), Faculty of Pharmacy, and Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela (IDIS), Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
² Faculty of Metals Engineering and Industrial Computer Science, AGH University of Science and Technology, Krakow, Poland.
³ i3S - Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde da Universidade do Porto - Associação, INEB - Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica, FEUP - Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
⁴ Department of Pharmaceutical and Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, German Jordanian University, Amman, Jordan.

Abstract

Pulmonary drug delivery has recognized benefits for both local and systemic treatments. Dry powder inhalers (DPIs) are convenient, portable and environmentally friendly devices, becoming an optimal choice for patients. The tailoring of novel formulations for DPIs, namely in the form of porous particles, is stimulating in the pharmaceutical research area to improve delivery efficiency. Suitable powder technological approaches are being sought to design such formulations. Namely, aerogel powders are nanostructured porous particles with particularly attractive properties (large surface area, excellent aerodynamic properties and high fluid uptake capacity) for these purposes. In this review, the most recent development on powder technologies used for the processing of particulate porous carriers are described via updated examples and critically discussed. A special focus will be devoted to the most recent advances and uses of aerogel technology to obtain porous particles with advanced performance in pulmonary delivery.

Keywords: aerogels; dry powder inhalers (DPIs); porous particles; powder technology; pulmonary delivery.

Publication types

Review