Nanostructures for drug delivery in respiratory diseases therapeutics: Revision of current trends and its comparative analysis

Our plain-English summary of Nanostructures for drug delivery in respiratory diseases therapeutics: Revision of current trends and its comparative analysis, by L.Á. Ibarra-Sánchez, A. Gámez-Méndez, M. Martínez-Ruiz, et al (Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology, 2022).

The study

• Authors: L.Á. Ibarra-Sánchez, A. Gámez-Méndez, M. Martínez-Ruiz, E.F. Nájera-Martínez, B.A. Morales-Flores, E.M. Melchor-Martínez, J.E. Sosa-Hernández, R. Parra-Saldívar, H.M.N. Iqbal
• Journal: Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology
• Published: 2022;70:103219
• Type of article: Review
• Cited by: 21 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

Respiratory diseases are leading causes of death and disability in developing and developed countries. The burden of acute and chronic respiratory diseases has been rising throughout the world and represents a major problem in the public health system. Acute respiratory diseases include pneumonia, influenza, SARS-CoV-2 and MERS viral infections; while chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma and, occupational lung diseases (asbestosis, pneumoconiosis) and other parenchymal lung diseases namely lung cancer and tuberculosis are examples of chronic respiratory diseases. Importantly, chronic respiratory diseases are not curable and treatments for acute pathologies are particularly challenging. For that reason, the integration of nanotechnology to existing drugs or for the development of new treatments potentially benefits the therapeutic goals by making drugs more effective and exhibit fewer undesirable side effects to treat these conditions. Moreover, the integration of different nanostructures enables improvement of drug bioavailability, transport and delivery compared to stand-alone drugs in traditional respiratory therapy. Notably, there has been great progress in translating nanotechnology-based cancer therapies and diagnostics into the clinic; however, researchers in recent years have focused on the application of nanostructures in other relevant pulmonary diseases as revealed in our database search. Furthermore, polymeric nanoparticles and micelles are the most studied nanostructures in a wide range of diseases; however, liposomal nanostructures are recognized to be some of the most successful commercial drug delivery systems. In conclusion, this review presents an overview of the recent and relevant research in drug delivery systems for the treatment of different pulmonary diseases and outlines the trends, limitations, importance and application of nanomedicine technology in treatment and diagnosis and future work in this field.

© 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In plain English

This article was a review, not an original study of people, animals or asbestos exposure. The authors searched the ScienceDirect database and Google Scholar for research articles from 2018 to 2021 on nanostructures used to carry drugs for respiratory diseases. Nanostructures are very small particles such as polymeric nanoparticles, micelles, liposomes, lipid-based nanoparticles, dendrimers and exosomes. The authors described how each type is made and summarized laboratory, animal and clinical-trial work on diseases including lung cancer, tuberculosis, asthma, COPD and COVID-19. They reported that polymeric nanoparticles and micelles had the most publications and dendrimers the fewest. They found that most of the research focused on lung cancer. Among clinical studies that started on or after 1 January 2018, liposomes were the most common nanostructure, followed by exosomes. The authors stated that most of the drug-delivery nanostructure systems available commercially were liposomes. Asbestosis appeared only once, in a list of chronic respiratory diseases. The review did not examine asbestos exposure, asbestos-related disease, or any treatment for it. The authors concluded that more research was needed beyond lung cancer.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Narrative review based on a database search of research articles
• Who was studied: Published research articles on drug-delivery nanostructures for respiratory diseases, from 2018 to 2021, plus clinical studies from ClinicalTrials.gov that started on or after 1 January 2018
• Exposure: No asbestos exposure was studied. The review covered drug-carrying nanostructures for respiratory diseases. Asbestosis was named only in a list of occupational chronic respiratory diseases.
• Main results:
  • In the authors' database search, polymeric nanoparticles and micelles had the largest number of publications.
  • Dendrimers were the least studied nanostructure for treating respiratory diseases by respiratory routes.
  • Most of the drug-delivery research for lung therapy that the authors reviewed focused on cancer treatment.
  • Among clinical studies from ClinicalTrials.gov that started on or after 1 January 2018, liposomes were the most common nanostructure, followed by exosomes.
  • The authors stated that most of the drug-delivery systems (DDS) available commercially were liposome nanostructures.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that more research on nanostructure drug delivery was needed for respiratory diseases other than lung cancer.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: COPD, Occupational Lung Disease, Pneumoconiosis, Lung Cancer.

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