Nanotechnology Interventions in Chronic Respiratory Diseases: Focus on COPD- A Review

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) refers to a progressive respiratory disease associated with airflow obstruction, chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, and irreversible damage to lung tissue. While conventional treatment regimens offer symptomatic relief, they are hampered by poor targeting of the lungs, systemic side effects, and low efficacy. Nanotechnology offers great potential in the enhancement of drug delivery, improvement of efficacy, and diagnosis of COPD. This paper discusses the current progress in nanotechnology-based interventions for COPD through novel carriers, targeted drug delivery, diagnosis, regenerative therapy, and translational barriers. Literature Review A literature review was carried out by collecting relevant scholarly literature from the PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar databases. Studies discussing nanotechnology-based therapeutic and diagnostic strategies for COPD were selected and critically analyzed. Present literature proves that nanotechnology-based drug delivery methods increase efficiency of pulmonary drug delivery, increase therapeutic efficiency, control drug delivery, and minimize toxicity. Newer applications of nanotechnology in molecular diagnostics, genetic delivery, and nanoregenerative medicine are some more areas where application of nanotechnology could revolutionize management of patients with COPD, but not much research has been done yet in this area. It is clear that nanotechnology holds great promise in making COPD treatment more effective and personalized. But further research is needed on safety aspects, manufacturing, regulations, etc. Keywords: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); Nanotechnology; Nanocarriers; Pulmonary drug delivery; Targeted therapy.