Figures & data
Figure 1. Mass fractional deposition of particles in the lungs as a function of aerodynamic diameter, assuming that particles are spherical with unit density. Adapted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature Reviews Drug Discovery (Patton & Byron, Citation2007), © 2007.
Figure 2. A. Liposomes loaded with water soluble (a) and water-insoluble drugs (b); B. Antibody-targeted immunoliposome with antibody covalently coupled (c) or hydrophobically anchored (d) to the surface; C. Liposome modified with a protective polymer such as PEG (e), which reduce interactions with opsonizing proteins (f); D. Liposome-bearing antibodies attached to the surface (g) or, to the end of PEG polymeric chain (h); E. Multifunctional liposome, which displays some of the following features: protective polymer (i), targeting ligand (j), diagnostic label (k), positively charged lipids (l) allowing for the complexation with DNA (m); stimuli-sensitive lipids (n); stimuli-sensitive polymer (o); cell-penetrating peptide (p) and incorporation of viral components (q), magnetic particles (r) for magnetic targeting and/or colloidal gold or silver particles (s) for electron microscopy.
Table 1. Clinical trials of anticancer drugs nanoformulations administered via inhalation.
Figure 3. Nanostructured lipid carrier platform able to provide pulmonary co-delivery of an anticancer drug, siRNA and targeting of cancer cells with a peptide. Reproduced from Taratula et al. (Citation2013) with permission.
Figure 4. Confocal microscopy image of doxorubicin-loaded nanoparticles embedded into lactose micron-sized particles via spray drying. Reproduced from Azarmi et al. (Citation2006) with permission.
Figure 5. Schematic illustration for the process of fabrication of electrospun composite nanofibers containing doxorubicin-loaded carbon nanotubes. Reproduced from Yu et al. (Citation2015) under CC BY 4.0.
