Comparative Assessment of In Vitro and In Silico Methods for Aerodynamic Characterization of Powders for Inhalation

In vitro assessment of dry powders for inhalation (DPIs) aerodynamic performance is an inevitable test in DPI development. However, contemporary trends in drug development also implicate the use of in silico methods, e.g., computational fluid dynamics (CFD) coupled with discrete phase modeling (DPM). The aim of this study was to compare the designed CFD-DPM outcomes with the results of three in vitro methods for aerodynamic assessment of solid lipid microparticle DPIs. The model was able to simulate particle-to-wall sticking and estimate fractions of particles that stick or bounce off the inhaler’s wall; however, we observed notable differences between the in silico and in vitro results. The predicted emitted fractions (EFs) were comparable to the in vitro determined EFs, whereas the predicted fine particle fractions (FPFs) were generally lower than the corresponding in vitro values. In addition, CFD-DPM predicted higher mass median aerodynamic diameter (MMAD) in comparison to the in vitro values. The outcomes of different in vitro methods also diverged, implying that these methods are not interchangeable. Overall, our results support the utility of CFD-DPM in the DPI development, but highlight the need for additional improvements in these models to capture all the key processes influencing aerodynamic performance of specific DPIs.