ABSTRACT

Introduction

Lung cancer and metastases are major concerns worldwide. Although systemic chemotherapy is the recommended treatment, it is associated with various disadvantages, including nonselective drug distribution and systemic toxicity. In contrast, the pulmonary route ensures the localized delivery of drugs to the lung. Still, the pulmonary route is prone to clearance, limited drug dissolution, and local toxicity to healthy lung cells. Drug nanocrystals provide a potential strategy to enhance the therapeutic efficacy and mitigate the limitations of pulmonary delivery.

Areas covered

The development and potential application of nanocrystals in pulmonary delivery, their role in overcoming associated barriers, and strategies for site-specific and stimuli-responsive pulmonary delivery are outlined. This review also traces different in-vitro pulmonary models for assessments of the performance of drug nanocrystals and nanocrystals loaded carriers in pulmonary delivery.

Expert opinion

Enhanced stability, high aerosolization performance, better particle size distribution, improved penetration, sustained release of the drug, and minimal excipients usage makes drug nanocrystal an ideal candidate for pulmonary delivery. Besides, drug nanocrystals may provide selective cellular internalization with minimum clearance and maximum deposition. Furthermore, surface modified nanocrystals and nanocrystals in nanocarriers can exhibit a more prolonged, and site-specific release of the drug to cancer cells in the lungs.

中文翻译：

---

用于肺部递送的靶向药物纳米晶体：肺癌治疗的潜在策略。

摘要

介绍

肺癌和转移瘤是全球主要关注的问题。尽管推荐全身化疗，但它伴随着各种不利因素，包括非选择性药物分布和全身毒性。相反，肺部途径确保药物向肺的局部递送。尽管如此，肺部途径仍倾向于清除，限制药物溶解以及对健康肺细胞的局部毒性。药物纳米晶体提供了增强治疗功效和减轻肺部输送限制的潜在策略。

覆盖区域

概述了纳米晶体在肺输送中的发展和潜在应用，它们在克服相关障碍方面的作用以及针对特定部位和刺激性反应的肺输送的策略。这篇综述还追踪了不同的体外肺部模型，以评估药物纳米晶体和载有纳米晶体的载体在肺部递送中的性能。

专家意见

增强的稳定性，较高的雾化性能，更好的粒径分布，改善的渗透性，药物的持续释放以及最少的赋形剂使用使药物纳米晶体成为肺部递送的理想候选药物。此外，药物纳米晶体可以提供具有最小清除率和最大沉积的选择性细胞内在化。此外，经表面修饰的纳米晶体和纳米载体中的纳米晶体可表现出药物向肺中癌细胞的更长时间和位点特异性释放。