Abstract
Background: Effervescent inhalable nanoparticles (NPs) have previously been shown to be a promising alternative to conventional lung cancer treatment in animals. This study investigates the biodistribution of effervescent inhalable NPs after a single dose administration via pulmonary route in lung cancer-bearing mice. Methods & results: Whole-body autoradiography and confocal laser-scanning microscopy (CLSM) were used to investigate the distribution of inhalable NPs loaded in an effervescent microcarrier. Inhalable doxorubicin-loaded NPs were tagged with 14C for whole-body autoradiography, or with fluorescein isothiocyanate for CLSM imaging. After pulmonary delivery, NPs were widely disseminated in the lungs with a long retention time (24 h). The heart was radioactivity free at all time points of the study. CLSM images showed that inhalable NPs were taken up by cells and that doxorubicin was released to the cell nuclei. Conclusion: This is the first study to investigate the distribution of inhalable NPs in a lung cancer-bearing animal model. Inhalable NPs achieved deep lung deposition, were actively released from microcarrier particles, spread to different parts of the lung and released doxorubicin in vivo. These NP characteristics contribute to the efficacy of effervescent inhalable NPs as a lung cancer treatment.
Ethical conduct of research
The authors state that they have obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
MHDK Al-Hallak acknowledges the receipt of a scholarship from Damascus University. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.