Characteristics of SARS-CoV2 that may be useful for nanoparticle pulmonary drug delivery.

As a non-invasive method of local and systemic drug delivery, the administration of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) via the pulmonary route represents an ideal approach for the therapeutic treatment of pulmonary diseases. The pulmonary route provides a number of advantages, including the rapid absorption which results from a high level of vascularisation over a large surface area and the successful avoidance of first-pass metabolism. Aerosolization of nanoparticles (NPs) is presently under extensive investigation and exhibits a high potential for targeted delivery of therapeutic agents for the treatment of a wide range of diseases. NPs need to possess specific characteristics to facilitate their transport along the pulmonary tract and appropriately overcome the barriers presented by the pulmonary system. The most challenging aspect of delivering NP-based drugs via the pulmonary route is developing colloidal systems with the optimal physicochemical parameters for inhalation. The physiochemical properties of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) have been investigated as a template for the synthesis of NPs to assist in the formulation of virus-like particles (VLPs) for pharmaceutical delivery, vaccine production and diagnosis assays.

Dissolving microneedle-assisted long-acting Liraglutide delivery to control type 2 diabetes and obesity.

Integrating nanoparticles (NPs) as a smart and targeted tool for drug delivery with dissolving microneedle (DMN) patch, the non-invasive device for drug delivery, is a promising for future therapeutic delivery applications. Liraglutide (Lira) encapsulation in poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) NPs provides a sustained release of Lira to 15 days in a biphasic profile which 80% of released content happens in the first 8 days. Embedding such sustained release NPs in the DMN comprising poly vinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) 50% w/v, eliminates the need for Lira subcutaneous injection. Additionally, NPs containing DMN enhance mechanical strength of needles to 5.31 N compared to DMN with pure Lira content which was 4.32 N. The flexible backing layer of the DMN was obtained via blending of PVP and poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) in 10% w/v. Circular dichroism (CD) analysis showed that Lira encapsulated in NPs maintained its native secondary structure even after solidification in DMN. In this study, the capacity of 2 kinds of 500 µm and 1000 µm needles to deliver the desired dose of drug was obtained based on experimental and mathematical methods.

Nanomaterial and advanced technologies in transdermal drug delivery.

Transdermal drug delivery (TDD) is an alternative method of drug administration for drugs whose delivery by conventional oral, topical, intravenous and intramuscular methods is of limited efficacy. Recent advances in TDD involve the use of nanoparticles (NPs), which exhibit a great potential to enhance drug permeation across the skin. NPs can also provide controlled release, the ability to deliver both hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs and reduce side effects, and when used in a TDD method they are also non-invasive. Another developing technology for TDD employs skin patches containing microneedles. Microneedles represent a painless and minimally invasive method of TDD in which micron-sized pores are created in the epidermis to allow delivery of drugs to the blood vessels present in the dermal layer of the skin. New researches have focussed on combining different TDD approaches to overcome previous constraints of drug delivery via conventional methods.