Improving the efficacy of inhaled drugs for severe lung diseases:Emerging pulmonary delivery strategies

摘要

In very recent years, inhaled drugs have raised many hopes for the treatment of severe lung diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cystic fibrosis (CF), bronchiectasis and lung cancer. Indeed, local drug delivery may allow maximum pharmacological targeting while maintaining low drug levels at non-target sites. The main issue is that these pathologies are complex and oblige the patient to use different drugs, mainly aerosolized, with poor local availability and complicated daily regimens. Although recent advances have led to tremendous improvements in patient survival, positive health outcomes are often accompanied by low adherence to therapy and poor quality of life for the patients.