The incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has increased many folds in the last couple of decades. This can be explained by the increased pollution levels and drastic changes in the lifestyle of the people. Taking a note of this, in this review, a conscious attempt was made to understand the physiological changes in the respiratory tract in a COPD patient. Nanoparticulate formulations play an extensive role in the current-day treatment regime of COPD patients. Hence, different methods for developing nanoparticulate formulations for the treatment of COPD are discussed in details.
TopIntroduction
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the most common diseases with high mortality rate across the globe (Aryal, Diaz-Guzman, & Mannino, 2013). The patient often becomes a burden to the families (Miravitlles, Peña-Longobardo, Oliva-Moreno, & Hidalgo-Vega, 2015). This may be attributed to the high cost associated with the treatment of COPD (Lee & Goldstein, 2015). Additionally, the requirement for an extensive care becomes a necessity for these patients (Perera, Armstrong, Sherrill, & Skrepnek, 2012). This further provides an additional burden to the families. The families, who are economically sound, can hire the services of caregivers. Due to the high cost associated with the hiring of the services of caregivers, most of the families, not only in the developing world but also in the developed countries, are unable to hire the services of the caregivers (Mansfield, et al., 2016). We have to bear in mind that the COPD patients, in their early and mid stages of the disease, are often unable to do the day-to-day activities with relative ease (Monjazebi, et al., 2016). This is due to the disability of the patients (Braido, et al., 2015). Though the name of the disease COPD suggests a chronic obstruction of the air flow to the lungs, the efficiency of the alveolar ventilation and gas exchange also play an important part in COPD (Antonaglia, Ferluga, & Lucangelo, 2016). The abnormalities present in the gaseous exchange quite often lead to sleep disorder, dyspnoea and also a relative increase in the strain experienced while breathing (McNicholas, Verbraecken, & Marin, 2013; Miki, et al., 2013). This, eventually, may further lead to hypoxia (a clinical condition where the oxygen concentration in the tissue is very low) and hypercapnia (a clinical condition where the concentration of carbon dioxide gas in blood is very high) (Kuklisova, Tkacova, Joppa, Wouters, & Sastry, 2016; Littleton, 2015; Zheng, et al., 2016). There is also a marked reduction in the respiratory reserve volume of the COPD patients (Guenette, Webb, & O’Donnell, 2012). Many scientists have predicted that there is an increase in the number of COPD patients due to the increased frequency of smoking and ageing population (Chiappa, Winn, Viñuela, Tipney, & Spector, 2013; Lahousse, et al., 2016). An increase in the air pollution is also playing a major role in the deterioration of the functioning capability of the lungs, thereby, promoting the progression of the disease (Bloemsma, Hoek, & Smit, 2016).
In the present study, we will discuss about the pathophysiological changes in the lungs of the COPD patients and the drug delivery/ formulation technologies employed in the treatment of the COPD patients.