Nanoparticle-mediated pulmonary drug delivery: state of the art towards efficient treatment of recalcitrant respiratory tract bacterial infections

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

Recalcitrant respiratory tract infections caused by bacteria have emerged as one of the greatest health challenges worldwide. Aerosolized antimicrobial therapy is becoming increasingly attractive to combat such infections, as it allows targeted delivery of high drug concentrations to the infected organ while limiting systemic exposure. However, successful aerosolized antimicrobial therapy is still challenged by the diverse biological barriers in infected lungs. Nanoparticle-mediated pulmonary drug delivery is gaining increasing attention as a means to overcome the biological barriers and accomplish site-specific drug delivery by controlling release of the loaded drug(s) at the target site. With the aim to summarize emerging efforts in combating respiratory tract infections by using nanoparticle-mediated pulmonary delivery strategies, this review provides a brief introduction to the bacterial infection-related pulmonary diseases and the biological barriers for effective treatment of recalcitrant respiratory tract infections. This is followed by a summary of recent advances in design of inhalable nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems that overcome the biological barriers and increase drug bioavailability. Finally, challenges for the translation from exploratory laboratory research to clinical application are also discussed and potential solutions proposed.
Original languageEnglish
JournalDrug Delivery and Translational Research
Volume11
Pages (from-to)1634–1654
ISSN2190-393X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

    Research areas

  • Respiratory tract bacterial infections, Biofilms, Intracellular infections, Chronic pulmonary diseases, Pulmonary drug delivery, Nanotechnology

ID: 261219652