A new technology for targeted delivery of antibiotics directly to the lungs has been developed by scientists from the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI and the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, TASS reported in the press service of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. For this purpose, the drug is "packaged" in microscopic porous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs).
These nanoparticles, slightly larger than 100 nanometers in size, act as "smart sponges": they are capable of carrying drugs, are introduced into the bloodstream, and selectively accumulate in the lung tissue. In experiments on mice, the concentration of particles in the lungs was approximately 10 times higher than in other organs.
The capillaries of the lungs are the smallest vessels in the body, about 6-8 micrometers in diameter, they are smaller than erythrocytes, which carry oxygen throughout the body. To target the lungs, particles of about 1,000 nanometers are usually used so that they are retained in the capillaries. But in one of our previous works, we found that similar MOF particles, which contained iron, not chromium, accumulate in the lungs, and in 1-2 blood circulation cycles, which is very fast.
The study opens the way to creating highly effective drugs for the treatment of severe pulmonary infections, and in the future, the technology is planned to be adapted to combat lung cancer.
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