Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted Development of Liposomal Inhaled Antibiotic Formulations to Target Pulmonary Infection(Queen’s University Belfast, 2024) Alhamod, Mona; Kett, Vicky; Tunney, MichaelThe lungs of people with cystic fibrosis, bronchiectasis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are susceptible to bacterial infection which is difficult to eliminate; this results in repeated and prolonged antimicrobial treatment that is frequently associated with systemic side effects. Inhaled antimicrobial liposomal formulations present a promising alternative to systemic administration. They offer several potential advantages, including enhanced drug concentration in the airways, minimized systemic side effects, and sustained drug release. This thesis focuses on the encapsulation of vancomycin and rifampicin into liposomes using a liposomal composition of soy-phosphatidylcholine (SPS), dimethyldioctadecylammonium bromide (DDAB), and D-α tocopherol polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (TPGS). Vancomycin was successfully encapsulated into liposomes using two methods; Thin film hydration (TFH) and organic free solvent (OSF) with high EE%. Spray drying and freeze drying converted the formulation into a dry powder suitable for inhalation, with both techniques producing particles of appropriate size, low water content %, and high Tg. The dried liposomal vancomycin demonstrated controlled in vitro release. Stability testing showed that the product remained stable for 24 weeks at 20°C but degraded at higher temperatures 40 °C with 75 % humidity. The efficacy of liposomal vancomycin was comparable to that of free vancomycin when tested against Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA isolates. The results indicate that both free and liposomal vancomycin have antimicrobial effects, and liposomal vancomycin exhibits a higher antimicrobial effect against some clinical isolates tested. Furthermore, the TFH method was employed to load rifampicin into liposomes. The resulting liposomal rifampicin was converted into a powder form using mini spray drying. During this process, key formulation characteristics such as particle size, PDI, surface charge, and encapsulation efficiency and morphology were investigated. The findings indicated that trehalose-based formulations produced spherical particles with properties suitable for inhalation, although further optimization was needed due to slightly larger liposomes sizes and PDI. Subsequently, a nano spray-drying technique was used, resulting in smaller, positively charged liposomes with favourable powder characteristics. In addition, rifampicin-loaded liposomes reduced both the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) for most clinical isolates of Nontuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM), indicating enhanced antibacterial efficacy. In time kill assays, liposomal rifampicin exhibited greater bactericidal and bacteriostatic activity against most isolates tested compared to free rifampicin. The liposomal formulation was able to more effectively target intracellular bacteria within macrophages compared to the free drug. Furthermore, the liposomal formulation was found to have no toxic effects on common lung cell lines at concentrations up to 512 µg/ml of rifampicin and vancomycin. This work has demonstrated that inhalable liposomal antibiotic formulations could potentially serve as a promising new therapeutic option for treating lung infections associated with respiratory diseases.9 0