Magnetic Nanoparticle Delivery System for Mucus Layer Penetration

Excessive mucus production is a common and significant problem for several prominent human lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In these diseases, the mucus barrier poses a significant challenge to drug delivery, leading to increased healthcare cost and poor quality of life for patients. One method of overcoming structural and fluid resistance of mucus is by utilizing a targeted delivery method of magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) to diseased epithelial cells. However, previous experimental studies showed no mucus penetration using superparamagnetic iron oxide (Fe3O4) FeNPs. In our experiments we generated a field gradient that is an order of magnitude stronger than that in previously applied FeNP delivery systems. In our delivery system, FeNPs successfully penetrated the approximately 100 μm thick mucus layer of air-liquid interface cultured primary normal human tracheobronchial epithelial cells indicating the potential of magnetic nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery to the airway mucosal surface.