A comparative study of bionic method, impactor and in silico method: Evaluation of DPI in specific airway models

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to develop a novel bionic experimental platform for evaluating orally inhaled drug delivery and to conduct a comparative study among the platform, cascade impactor and in silico methods. A reliable experimental platform fully considering environment, human factors and inhaled drugs was developed to evaluate the pulmonary regional deposition directly. Bionic experimental results were compared to in silico and in vivo data to gain a more comprehensive understanding of their correlation. The findings indicate that inhalation conditions, mouth-throat geometric variation and mass median aerodynamic diameter (MMAD) affected delivery and deposition patterns. Underestimated MMAD obtained by the cascade impactor led to lower in silico MT deposition and discrepancy between bionic experimental and in silico results. Furthermore, modified prediction methods based on cascade impactor and in silico method were proposed to improve the accuracy of prediction results and better consistency was observed by comparing with bionic experimental results. Overall, Bionic experimental platform and modified prediction methods were developed to better predict pulmonary drug deposition distribution and to further our understanding of the aerosol dynamics and optimization of inhaled drug delivery. Bionic experimental platform based on realistic models offers a powerful tool to predict the pulmonary drug deposition accurately and directly prior to in vivo testing. Modified prediction methods can indirectly predict the deposition results based on a combination of cascade impactor and in silico data.