Title:Targeted Drug Delivery to the Virus-Infected Airway; Complications and Remedies
Volume: 12
Issue: 1
Author(s): Daniel T.W. Clarke and Nigel A.J. McMillan
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Airway, drug delivery, infection, inhalation, therapeutics, virus.
Abstract: Drug delivery to the airway and lower respiratory tract by aerosol inhalation has become a successful,
non-invasive method of preventing and treating local disease of the lung. Consequently, it has been a
promising route for clinical trials using highly specific and novel therapies to overcome viral pulmonary infection
such as RNA interference, neutralising monoclonal antibodies and microparticle treatments. Yet despite
this great potential, this form of delivery has proven somewhat ineffective due to airway remodeling, inflammation
and mucus hypersecretion that results from viral symptoms in the respiratory tract. Here we review
the research into the delivery technologies available as well as the types of therapeutics used for respiratory
virus disease and examine how virus infection-induced airway inflammation modulates its success. We discuss the
future of aerosol administration and present potential alternative methods for efficient drug delivery so as to improve postinfection
virus control therapies.
