The lung is more and more of interest for the systemic delivery of drugs. Exubera®, the first inhalable insulin demonstrated the feasibility of peptide administration via the inhalative route. However, the development of advanced drug delivery systems is limited by missing excipients which are approved for the pulmonary administration. Retarded formulations, based on modern polymers and/or formulation technologies – a standard in orally administered drugs - are still missing. Hence the BMBF funds the NanoInhale project, consisting of industrial and university facilities.

With the aid of different biodegradable polymers and formulation technologies like electrospraying, electrospinning, or solvent displacement, nanoparticles containing budesonide or salbutamol as model drug should be obtained. The task of the department of Biopharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology is the cell culture based in vitro testing of the retarded effect and biocompatibility. Furthermore, our group is focused on the clearance processes of the project particles in the different regions of the lung. Macrophage induced clearance in the deep lung as well as mucociliary clearance in the conductive airways can be simulated with the aid of cell culture or an embryonic chicken trachea model.