AEROTARG · Focused Targeting of Inhaled Magnetic Aerosols for Lung Cancer

The pulmonary tract is an attractive route for direct treatments of lung diseases. Yet, our ability to confine the deposition of inhalation aerosols to specific lung regions, and notably local airways, remains still widely beyond reach with common inhalation therapy. It has been hypothesized that by coupling magnetic particles to inhaled therapeutics the ability to locally target airway sites can be substantially improved. Yet, virtually all practical implementations to date have come short of delivering efficient localized airway targeting. Here, we demonstrate an engineered inhalation framework to leverage magnetically-loaded aerosols for airway targeting in the presence of a custom-designed external magnetic field. By coupling the delivery of a short pulsed bolus of sub-micron (~500 nm diameter) droplet aerosols, laden with super-paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION), with a custom ventilation machine that tracks the volume of air inhaled past the bolus, focused targeting can be maximized during a breath-hold manoeuvre. Our aerosol inhalation platform allows for the first time to deposit inhaled particles to specific airway sites while minimizing superfluous deposition across the respiratory track. This represents a dramatic effort to augment the targeting efficiency (i.e. deposition ratio between targeted and untargeted aerosols). Our first application of focus is aimed at lung cancer. We aim to achieve point targeted delivery of chemotherapeutics directly to lung tumours and lesions through inhalation, thus increasing effective doses and dramatically reducing side effects, in particular relative to detrimental systemic toxicity. AEROTARG embodies a significant paradigm shift in drug delivery modalities aimed for lung cancer therapy.