New nebulizer may replace injections
Getting a jab is scary at most and irritating at least. Researchers from RMIT are aiming to spare us the pain with a new nebulizer.
The Respite nebulizer allows the patients to inhale vaccines and drugs cancer, tuberculosis, asthma and cystic fibrosis, which are traditionally administered through injections.
Professor Leslie Yeo, Director of RMIT’s MicroNanophysics Research Laboratory, said the Respite technology had the potential to revolutionise how patients were treated with drugs, including people with lung cancer whose poor survival rates have stayed stable despite significant therapeutic advances in recent years.
“Anything we can nebulise, we can potentially deliver,” Yeo said.
“The problem with normal puffers is that only 30 per cent of the drugs actually get to the lungs, the rest is lost in the mouth – which isn’t a problem if the drugs are cheap but is when they are expensive.
“The most important aspect of our device is that it does not require inhalation to generate the aerosols as with the ubiquitous inhalers, which can be a problem for people already suffering compromised lung function.”
Yeo said traditional inhalers also require hand-breath coordination to use and elderly and very young patients must be taught to avoid misusing.
“And unlike one-size-fits-all inhalers, Respite allows the dose to be adjusted based on a patient’s size, age, gender, physiological profile and disease severity.”
The design does not require meshes or nozzles unlike other nebulisers, so there is no clogging or fouling problems that diminish performance.
The Respite technology uses sound waves to excite the surface of the fluid or drug. This generates a fine mist capable of delivering much larger molecules directly to the lungs.
Rigorous lab tests have proved the device capable of delivering next generation drugs such as proteins, peptides and DNA to the lungs without a patient having to inhale. The device delivers drugs at rates of up to 3 ml/min, compared to the much smaller doses of 0.4 ml/min benchmark of current nebulisers.
Recent trials in Melbourne also showed sheep given a DNA flu vaccine via a nebuliser had comparable immune responses to animals injected with the vaccine.
Category: Features, Technology & Devices
