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Feasibility of spray drying bacteriophages into respirable powders to combat pulmonary bacterial infections

Dieter Vandenheuvel1, Abhishek Singh, Katrien Vandersteegen

  • 1Division of Gene Technology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium.

European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics : Official Journal of Arbeitsgemeinschaft Fur Pharmazeutische Verfahrenstechnik E.V
|January 29, 2013
PubMed

Insights

Spray drying enables bacteriophage therapy by creating stable dry powders. Trehalose proved effective, yielding powders suitable for pulmonary delivery via dry powder inhalers (DPIs).

Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Pharmaceutical Technology
  • Biotechnology

Background:

  • Bacteriophage therapy is being reevaluated as an alternative to antibiotics.
  • Developing stable, administrable phage formulations is crucial for clinical application.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the feasibility of spray drying bacteriophages into a dry powder formulation.
  • To evaluate the protective effects of different excipients during spray drying.
  • To assess the suitability of the resulting phage powders for pulmonary delivery.

Main Methods:

  • Laboratory-scale spray drying of bacteriophages (Pseudomonas podovirus LUZ19 and Staphylococcus phage Romulus) using lactose, trehalose, or dextran 35 as excipients.
  • Analysis of phage survival rates under different spray drying conditions (inlet air temperature, atomizing force).
  • Characterization of powder particle size distribution for pulmonary deposition.

Main Results:

  • Trehalose was the most effective excipient for protecting phages during spray drying.
  • Lower inlet air temperatures and atomizing forces improved phage survival.
  • Pseudomonas podovirus LUZ19 showed high stability (<1 log unit reduction), while Staphylococcus phage Romulus had a greater reduction (>2.5 log units).
  • Romulus-containing powders exhibited favorable particle size characteristics (1-5 μm) for pulmonary delivery.

Conclusions:

  • Spray drying is a viable and scalable method for producing bacteriophage dry powders.
  • The formulation and process parameters significantly impact phage viability and powder characteristics.
  • The resulting phage powders demonstrate potential for pulmonary delivery using dry powder inhalers (DPIs).

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