New Inhalation formulations for improved delivery of antimicrobials

There is a variety of respiratory diseases that would benefit from inhaling a drug to route its active ingredient directly to its desired location in the human lung, rather than taking a detour through the stomach or blood circulation. Our respiratory system presents an effective barrier to protect our lungs from contaminants in the air, such as dust, pollen, and pollutants, but also bacteria and viruses. The same barrier that protects us from inhaling unwanted matter also presents a considerable hurdle in using the human airways as an effective route of drug delivery. Therefor development of inhalation formulations is demanding and requires research on new technologies to overcome these hurdles and limitations to deliver the antibiotic to the right part of the airways. 

The aim of the project is to develop innovative formulations to improve drug deposition at the sites of infection, enhance biofilm penetration, and increase the drug exposure in the relevant sites of infection by controlling drug release and clearance.

- We will utilize the latest advancements in formulation technologies to develop five distinct inhalation formulations of apramycin and competitively evaluate their pharmacokinetics, safety, and efficacy in Acinetobacter baumannii animal infection models. The results from this project will provide a case study for other antimicrobials as well, says Lina Nyström, scientist and project manager at RISE. 

The project is coordinated by University of Zürich, and will  will be conducted over 3 years in close collaboration between the 7 projects partners;  RISE Research Institutes of Sweden AB (Sweden), Inhalation Sciences AB (Sweden), CIDETEC (Spain), Fraunhofer ITEM (Germany), INSERM U1070 (France) samt LIOS (Latvia).