Patient-specific release of the aerosols from the spacer and its effect on the drug delivery to the human lungs

Efficient drug delivery to human lungs is critical for aerosol therapeutics. This research is the first to explore enhancing lung drug delivery through the change of the releasing period of aerosols into the human lung. Specifically, the goal of this study is to adjust the releasing period of aerosols from spacers to the lungs based on a realistic aerosol breathing profile and analyse its effect on aerosol deposition. A 3D realistic human lung model, extending from the mouth-throat region to generation 6, was used in ANSYS Fluent software to conduct a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis of aerosol transport and deposition under different release modes. The aerosol release modes were selected according to the flow rates of a realistic breathing pattern. The study demonstrates that releasing aerosols at the beginning of inhalation leads to improved therapeutic delivery to the lungs compared to other modes. By employing the concept of adjustable aerosol release, the injection is controlled based on the aerosols' inertia. This allows the spacer’s release rate to be optimized for enhanced drug delivery to the lungs.