A review on pulmonary drug delivery system

Now a day’s pulmonary drug delivery remains the preferred route for administration of various drugs. Pulmonary drug delivery is currently the focus of accelerated research and development because of the potential to produce maximum therapeutic benefit to patients by directly targeting drug to the site of pathology in the lungs. These routes of drug delivery may give the advantages like a small amount of drug, less adverse reaction and rapid onset of action. Drug delivery by the pulmonary route has evolved to be one of the most widely used systemic or local drug delivery approach. Recent progress within biotechnology has generated a group of novel protein and peptide drugs to which administration to the respiratory tract, to obtain systemic delivery seems advantageous compared to e.g. parenteral or gastrointestinal administration (tablets, capsules etc.). A successful pulmonary administration requires a harmonic interaction between the drug formulation, the inhaler device, and the patient. The delivery device plays a major role in the efficiency of pulmonary delivery, and great strides have been made in the development of new devices in recent years. The devices most commonly used for respiratory delivery, including nebulizers, metered-dose inhalers, and dry powder inhalers. the choice of device will depend on the drug, the formulation, the site of action, and the pathophysiology of the lungs. Pulmonary drug delivery system has been widely used in various diseases conditions like asthma, COPD, angina pectoris, diabetes, cancer, migraine, tuberculosis, acute lung injury and other.