We are developing a passive targeting approach for drug delivery to the lungs via the venous blood stream. The lung receives the entire venous blood supply from the heart and passes it through the capillary beds on the alveoli. Large particles in the venous blood are thus trapped in these capillary beds. This filtering phenomenon can be used to selectively deliver particles to the lung. Such delivery methods have been safely employed in pulmonary perfusion diagnostic agents; however the use of this novel delivery route for chemotherapeutic drugs has not been appreciated or utilized by the drug delivery community.The key element of the delivery is precise control of the gel particle size and modulus. The gel microparticles are made by an emulsion process using microfluidics to create droplets of macromers and therapeutic nanoparticles. Polymerization of the 10-40 micron droplet entraps the nanoparticles, but biodegradable lactides in the gel structure degrade in a controlled way to release the drugs. Issues in microfluidic production of highly loaded drops, polymerization, and characterization of gel proproperties of these microparticles will be discussed..

Microfluidic design of gel microparticles for drug delivery to the lungs

245th National Meeting (2013)

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