Developing A Total Consumption Inhaler

开发总消耗吸入器

• 批准号: RGPIN-2022-04442
• 负责人: Ashgriz, Nasser
• 金额: $ 2.33万
• 依托单位: University of Toronto
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=759620
• 关键词: Developing; Total; Consumption; Inhaler

Asthma and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) are among the most occurring respiratory diseases, which present a significant public health burden to the global healthcare system. About 11% of Canadians suffer from respiratory diseases. Inhalers are a common drug delivery method for all respiratory problems. Many inhalers use a nebulizer to convert a solution type drug to an aerosol of droplets, which is inhaled by the patient. To successfully reach the patient's lungs, the aerosol droplet sizes should be less than 5 microns. Droplets larger than 5 microns are collected in the mouth and the upper respiratory tree. The currently available nebulizers generate a wide range of droplet sizes, usually between 1-30 microns, with 80-90% of the drug mass belonging to droplets with larger than 5 microns. Therefore, 80-90% of the drug is wasted. Since most medicines are costly, it is desired to have a nebulizer that every one of its droplets are used. In addition, when most of the medicine is lost in the mouth, the patient never knows if the right dosage is used. The objective of the present proposed research is to develop a nebulizer/inhaler that all of its droplets are less than 5 microns. This nebulizer would effectively transfer liquid medicine into a patient's lungs, ensuring proper dosage of medicine with minimal waste. The proposed inhaler would operate based on ultrasonic atomization of a small sessile droplet. A small liquid mass in the form of a sessile droplet is set on the surface of a piezoelectric transducer, and it is vibrated at Megahertz frequency ranges. Our preliminary results have shown that when the size of the sessile droplet goes below about 500 microns, small 2-5 micron droplets eject from its surface. We refer to this as a total consumption nebulizer since all the medicine that is generated is inhaled and used for the treatment of the patient. Before this concept is reduced to practice, we need to understand why it works and what are its limitations. Therefore, we propose a fundamental study of the ultrasonic atomization of a small (0.3-1 mm) sessile droplet, set on different types of surfaces (different coatings to change the surface contact angles) and vibrated at different frequencies (1-100 MHz). In addition, effect of liquid properties, including using rheological fluids of the type used in inhalers, as well as solutions containing particles (slurries) will be tested. The atomization process will also be studied theoretically (computationally) to reveal the physics involved in this process, and test out hypothesis for the formation of such small droplet. We plan to have two students on this project. One performing the experiments, and one on the theory. The proposed budget for this project is $73k a year, which will include the cost of two PhD students and the experimental tests.

哮喘和COPD（慢性阻塞性肺部疾病）是发生最严重的呼吸道疾病之一，这给全球医疗体系带来了重大的公共卫生负担。大约11％的加拿大人患有呼吸道疾病。吸入器是所有呼吸道问题的常见药物输送方法。许多吸入器使用雾化器将溶液型药物转换为一滴液滴，该液滴被患者吸入。为了成功到达患者的肺部，气溶胶液滴尺寸应小于5微米。大于5微米的液滴收集在口腔和上呼吸树中。当前可用的雾化器会产生多种液滴尺寸，通常在1-30微米之间，其中80-90％的药物块属于液滴，属于大于5微米的液滴。因此，浪费了80-90％的药物。由于大多数药物都是昂贵的，因此希望有一个雾化器，即使用其每种液滴。此外，当大多数药物在口腔中丢失时，患者永远不知道是否使用了合适的剂量。 本提出的研究的目的是开发一种雾化器/吸入器，即其所有液滴均小于5微米。这种雾化器将有效地将液体药物转移到患者的肺部，以确保用最少的废物剂量的药物剂量。拟议的吸入器将基于小柄液滴的超声雾化而运行。在压电传感器的表面设置了一个小滴液滴形式的小液体，并在megahertz频率范围内振动。我们的初步结果表明，当无柄液滴的大小低于约500微米时，从其表面弹出的小2-5微米液滴。我们将其称为总消费雾化器，因为所有生成的药物都被吸入并用于治疗患者。在将这个概念简化为实践之前，我们需要了解它为什么起作用及其局限性。因此，我们提出了一项基本研究，对小（0.3-1 mm）的无孔液滴的超声雾化，设置在不同类型的表面（不同的涂层以改变表面接触角），并以不同的频率（1-100 MHz）振动。此外，将测试液体性质的影响，包括使用吸入器中使用的类型的流动流体以及含有颗粒的溶液（浆液）的影响。理论上（计算上）还将研究雾化过程，以揭示此过程中涉及的物理，并测试形成这种小滴的假设。 我们计划让两个学生参加这个项目。一个执行实验，一个在理论上。该项目的拟议预算为每年73,000美元，其中包括两名博士学位学生和实验测试的费用。