Advancement in pulmonary drug delivery systems for treatment of tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is the second most deadly infectious disease around the world. Chemotherapy of TB is complicated by the need of multidrug regimens that need to be administered over long periods. Most oral antitubercular drugs (ATDs) presently in use fail to achieve high drug concentration in the lung. For administration of ATDs, lungs are an attractive and versatile route used since ancient times for treatment of pulmonary and airway diseases. But there are numerous barriers in the respiratory tract that restrict the pulmonary delivery of drugs to the target site. So, novel carrier systems are used to deliver ATDs, which can overcome these barriers and improve drug effectiveness as well as targetability to alveolar macrophages after pulmonary administration. This chapter includes the importance of pulmonary drug delivery systems, such as liposomes, niosomes, nanoparticles, microparticles, dendrimers, solid lipid nanoparticles, micelles, nanosuspensions, nanoemulsions, and microemulsions for an effective treatment of TB. The advances in delivery devices from conventional metered dose inhalers to dry powder inhalers are also discussed along with their applications.