Overview
Topic status: In progress
Overview
Asthma is a lung disease that affects the air passage of the lung and causes difficulty in breathing. It is one of the most wide spread chronic health problem in Australia. Approximately 14% of children and 10-12% adults are suffering from this disease in Australia. Inhalational therapy is at the cutting age of modern drug delivery research which impacts the treatment of asthma and other lung diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) and cystic fibrosis.
Pulmonary delivery of drugs gives the most direct access to drug target and delivery of powdered drugs via breath actuated dry powder inhaler (DPI) device provides the significant advantage over metered dose inhaler and nebulizer. Dry powders for inhalation are the carrier-based interactive mixtures, particles with aerodynamic particle sizes of <5 μm are mixed with large carriers for effective dispersion of micronized drugs to the deep lung. However, the delivery efficiency of drugs form currently available DPI system is not high, as in some cases only 12-40% of the inhaled dose and the reason behind this in not clear.
The concentration of added fine excipients and the carrier size affect the performance of drug dispersion from DPI formulations. The purpose of this research will be to explore the effect of the biodegradable polymer carrier size and concentration of some excipients on the dispersion of a model drug salbutamol sulphate (SS) from powder formulation. It may be expected that any development in DPI systems will earn enormous attention in pharmaceutical arena for the management of asthma and other lung disorders and will definitely have significant economic prospect. Furthermore, outcome of this research will be published in high impact journals which would increase the strength of our research activity to attract external funding for future research.Methods and techniques that will be developed in the course of this project include:
- development of biodegradable polymer micro-particles by a homogeniser
- morphological characterization of particles by SEM, ESEM
- formulation of powdered drugs and in-vitro delivery studies using a Twin Stage impinger (TSI)
- analyse/assay of drugs (UV and HPLC).
Duration of project
6-8 weeks, mid-November to the beginning of Semester 1, 2012
- Study level
- Vacation research experience scholarship
- Supervisors
- QUT
- Organisational unit
Science and Engineering Faculty
- Research area
- Keywords
- pharmacy, asthma
- Contact
- Please contact the supervisor for enquiries.
Dr Nazrul Islam
