New Aerosols Promise Improved Inhalation Therapies

6-20-97
University Park, Pa. --- A new type of dry aerosol mist, designed by a Penn State/MIT-led international team, has been shown in tests on rats to deliver medication significantly longer and more efficiently than currently used inhalation aerosols.

Dr. David A. Edwards, associate professor of chemical engineering and first author of the team's recent paper, says "With additional research, the new aerosols can lead to improved treatments for asthma, cystic fibrosis and other lung disorders. The new aerosols also possess exciting potential as non-invasive delivery systems for medicines such as insulin to treat diabetes, and for interferon, a cancer treatment."

The new aerosols are detailed in the June 20 issue of Science magazine in a paper titled "Large Porous Particles for Pulmonary Drug Delivery." Edwards' co-authors include Dr. Robert Langer who led the MIT group involved in the study.

Edwards notes that the aerosols now most commonly available often provide only a few hours of relief. The inhalation therapy has to be repeated frequently and this chronic use, particularly in the case of bronchodilators used by asthmatics, can increase the probability of a fatal asthma attack.

Medication delivered by the new aerosols penetrates more efficiently into the lungs and stays there longer, Edwards says. In the future, when the new aerosol is approved for human use, patients can expect to use their inhalers less frequently -- once every day or two versus several times per day -- and to use a lower dose of the medication.

The new aerosols are composed of tiny, near invisible particles that are three to 10 times larger than those used currently but weigh up to 90 percent less. The particles are, in some ways, like a whiffle ball with medication inside. When the whiffle ball-like porous particles are inhaled, the medicine slowly seeps out in the lungs and either acts directly on the lung tissue or enters the blood stream through the lung wall as inhaled oxygen does.

Edwards says the new larger, lighter particles remained longer in the lungs and were tolerated better with less inflammation in tests with rats. Large porous insulin particles, for example, stayed active in the rats' lungs for 96 hours which is about 15 times longer than the longest-acting aerosol currently known. Testosterone in porous particles produced higher blood hormone levels for 12 to 24 hours. Other medications, including albuterol, the leading fast-acting asthma reliever, are currently being tested in the new aerosol formulation.

Edwards had the idea for the new porous particles when he was a research associate in Dr. Robert Langer's laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Edwards and Langer began to actively research the concept after Edwards joined the Penn State faculty in 1995. The Langer-led MIT group included Dr. Jeffrey Hrkach; Giovanni Caponetti, a visiting graduate student from the University of Parma, Italy; Dr. Justin Hanes, now at Johns Hopkins University; and Dr. Noah Lotan, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. Edwards' team at Penn State included Dr. Abdelaziz Ben-Jebria, associate professor of chemical engineering; Dr. Mary Lou Eskew, research associate; Dr. Daniel Deaver, professor of reproductive physiology; and Jeffrey Mintzes, graduate student.

The research was supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

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EDITORS: For photo and sound files see: http://www.psu.edu/ur/aerosols/aerosols.html

Contacts:
Barbara Hale (814) 865-9481 (office) (814) 238-0997 (home) bah@psu.edu
Vicki Fong (814) 865-9481 (office) (814) 238-1221 (home) vyf1@psu.edu

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