A mechanism based computational tool to optimize pulmonary drug delivery

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Pulmonary drug delivery has emerged as a noninvasive alternative route for the treatment of lung diseases asthma COPD CF and lung cancer In order to obtain the desired level of effectiveness and safety of the inhaled drugs an appropriate deposition on the targeted region and subsequent absorption in the targeted region is vital Multiscale multidisciplinary computational tools linking Computational Fluid Dynamics CFD particle species transport and PBPK PD models were developed during the Phase I effort for obtaining mechano biological insights and quantifying the efficacy of the delivery processes Preliminary results demonstrated the validity and capabilities of this multiscale multidisciplinary computational concept In Phase II we will i extend the existing particle transport models for handling varied drug sizes ii further develop the deposition formulations for the Reduced Order Models ROM for faster than life simulations iii incorporate the airway wall biomechanics model for accurately capturing the dynamics of lumen diameter change smooth muscle force particle transport deposition in healthy and diseased lung states global or local levels of progression iv extend and validate the mucosal transport clearance models on ROM wire meshes to characterize the effects of healthy and diseased states on drug clearance and absorption in the lung tissue v calibrate the models for matching clinical PBPK data for various drugs and administration protocols and vi significantly improve the existing GUI for lung geometry alteration support diseased states and for the whole body PBPK The above aims will hasten the development of pulmonary drugs by carefully identifying key mechanical and biopharmaceutical factors affecting efficacy and safety of inhaled drugs using fast and robust computational simulations A multistep simulation protocol for modeling drug inhalation delivery deposition absorption and PBPK PD will be established High fidelity tools will be targeted for pharma expert users and automated fast running reduced order models for pharma end users The proposed computational toolkit will thus provide a virtual platform to investigate interactions between drug delivery methods drug carrier types and the human physiological systems at multiple scales and ultimately optimize the efficacy of pulmonary drug delivery processPUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE The novel software tool proposed in this project will provide an efficient and accurate computational platform to virtually test design develop and optimize nasally orally inhaled drug products by investigating interactions between delivery methods generic specific drug carrier types and the human physiological systems at multiple scales This computational toolkit will hasten the drug discovery process by identifying key mechano biological factors affecting the efficacy and the safety of inhaled drugs using fast and robust simulations This will aid the pharma experts the end users and the pharmaceutical industry by facilitating translational applications from bench to bedside by obtaining new insights into the drug interaction at various scales by enhancing success rates of new and existing pulmonary drug products and by ultimately helping reduce health care burdens on society