Pulmonary drug delivery: an effective and convenient delivery route to combat COVID-19

• Published in: Drug delivery and translational research Vol. 13; no. 3; pp. 705 - 715
• Main Authors: Alipour, Shohreh, Mahmoudi, Laleh, Ahmadi, Fatemeh
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.03.2023
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; COVID-19; Drug Delivery Systems; Humans; Lung; Pharmaceutical Sciences/Technology; Review; Review Article; SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; Pulmonary drug delivery; Inhalation therapy; Lung diseases
• ISSN: 2190-393X; 2190-3948
• DOI: 10.1007/s13346-022-01251-1

The recent outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Wuhan, China has spread rapidly around the world, leading to a widespread and urgent effort to develop and use comprehensive approaches in the treatment of COVID-19. While oral therapy is accepted as an effective and simple method, since the primary site of infection and disease progression of COVID-19 is mainly through the lungs, inhaled drug delivery directly to the lungs may be the most appropriate route of administration. To prevent or treat primary SARS-CoV-2 infections, it is essential to target the virus port of entry in the respiratory tract and airway epithelium, which requires rapid and high-intensity inhibition or control of viral entry or replication. To achieve success in this field, inhalation therapy is the most attractive treatment approach due to efficacy/safety profiles. In this review article, pulmonary drug delivery as a unique treatment option in lung diseases will be briefly reviewed. Then, possible inhalation therapies for the treatment of symptoms of COVID-19 will be discussed and the results of clinical trials will be presented. By pulmonary delivery of the currently approved drugs for COVID-19, efficacy of the treatment would be improved along with reducing systemic side effects. Graphical abstract