Respiratory Therapies of the Developing Lungs: Inhaled Aerosols Delivery During Early Childhood

Inhalation therapy is the cornerstone of early-childhood treatments and a potent strategy for systemic drug delivery. Thorough understanding of respiratory flows is thus indispensable to characterize particle transport in the deep regions of children`s lungs necessary for efficient targeting in inhalation therapy. However, children present distinct pulmonary structures where the lungs are not fully developed at birth and undergo dramatic remodeling during alveolarization phases. Thus children are not miniaturized adults, whereas fundamental research is still overwhelmingly focused on fully-developed adult lungs. Dysanaptic lung growth accompanied with varying breathing patterns, are anticipated to influence deposition efficiency of inhaled particles in the developing airways. Utilizing computational simulations of sub-acinar regions, we examine deposition patterns of pharmaceutical particles acknowledged to reach the alveoli, within airway geometry based on true measurements of infant lungs. Overall, we investigate respiratory flows at the deep regions of developing lungs, examining how aerosol transport and deposition changes throughout the first years of life.