Inhalation Drug Delivery Flashcards
What are the benefits of inhalation drug delivery?
- rapid onset of action - good for breakthrough pain
- avoids GI degradation - good for compounds that are prone to this
- avoids first pass metabolism
- can use a lower dose of the drug, meaning fewer/less risk of ADR
- accurate dose adjustment and titration, good for when required dosing
- use of small volumes (25mL - 100mL)
- good to avoid physical/chemical interactions
- good for when a drug has issues orally with it’s pharmacokinetics (unpredictable/inconsistent)
What parts of the airway consists of the upper respiratory tract?
- buccal
- sublingual
- nasal cavities (this warms and moistens the air an filters out large particles)
- pharynx
- larynx
- epiglottis
What parts of the airway consist of the lower respiratory tract?
- trachea
- bronchi (primary and secondary)
- bronchioles
- alveoli
What is the diameter of the trachea?
1.5cm - 2cm
What is the diameter of the bronchioles?
< 1 mm
What is the diameter and surface area of the alveoli?
< 0.5 mm
have 30 million alveoli per lung, giving a 70cm2 surface area for gas exchange
What is particle deposition affected by?
- product characteristics
- anatomical and physiological characteristics
What product characteristics affects particle deposition?
Dry Powder (particles) - diameter, shape, density, charge, surface chemistry
Liquid Aerosol (liquid droplets) - droplet size, velocity, nature of propellant
What anatomical and physiological characteristics affect particle deposition?
- lung capacity
- lung geometry
- breathing pattern (frequency + tidal volume )
- disease/pathology
What particle size-related effects are there when considering particle deposition?
- inertial impaction
- gravitational sedimentation
- brownian diffusion
- electrostatic attractions
- interception
What is inertial impaction?
- related to bigger sized particles (above 1um - micron in size)
- momentum of the particle means that it doesn’t follow the airflow and instead impacts on the wall
- bigger particles move faster
What is gravitational sedimentation?
- this is where particles sediment in the gap between breathing in and breathing out
- related to the residence time in an airway and terminal settling velocity
- also related to bigger sized particles
this is increased when someone holds their breath
What is brownian diffusion?
- related to smaller particles (below sub micron sized < 0.1 um)
- random collision of a particle with the airway wall
What is electrostatic attraction?
- where the charge on the particle induces a charge on the airway wall
- this happens further down the airways as particles have to be close to the wall in order to induce a charge
What is interception?
- where the particle size approaches the same diameter as the airways and deposit through interception
- this is not significant for spherical shaped particles