Pulmonary surfactant and drug delivery: development of novel carriers for improving distribution, targeting, uptake and cross-talk in the deep lungs

• Applicant: Dr. Alberto Hidalgo, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Pharmacology ; Biochemistry ; Biophysics ; Cell Biology
• Term: from 2021 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 471650084

Respiratory diseases cause an enormous health burden worldwide and suppose increasing healthcare costs affecting the economies of all countries. A key obstacle limiting the prospects to face on the new therapeutic challenges is the lack of efficient respiratory drug delivery strategies enhancing targeting, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. The current paradigm in pulmonary drug delivery relies on aerosols that deposit, depending on their aerodynamic properties, directly on the place of action of absorption. However, these strategies are not very efficient to reach the distal airways. In this respect, we propose a new perspective that may change the current respiratory drug delivery paradigm. Pulmonary surfactant (PS), a lipid-protein material essential for the process of breathing, offers novel opportunities for pulmonary drug delivery. After deposition in the upper or conductive airways, PS-based formulations may continue to distal areas by “surfing” over the respiratory air-liquid interface, efficiently reaching and transporting therapeutics to the alveolar region of the lung. Combining biophysical, cellular and pre-clinical in vivo studies, this project aims to address a new drug delivery strategy targeting the lungs from a multidisciplinary and translational perspective: the interfacial delivery. The project is divided into three different Working Packages (WP) that account for designing PS-based therapeutic formulations (WP1), targeting human alveolar cells (WP2), and performing a pre-clinical study on mice (WP3).

• DFG Programme: WBP Position