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Transdermal powdered drug delivery is an emerging technology for the injection of drugs through human skin, in which particles of solid drug are entrained in a high-speed gas flow and directed towards the skin at a high enough velocity to penetrate the outer layer of dead cells. Hand-held devices based on this idea offer a means of safe, painless and effective delivery of many drugs and vaccines. This thesis describes a programme of research into the fluid dynamics which determine the particle velocity distribution, the most important mechanical characteristic of the system, in prototype drug delivery devices. Pressure measurements are described which enable characterisation of the gas flow in the drug delivery devices. These are complemented by optical particle detection experiments, which provide a record of the timing of drug particle delivery with respect to the gas flow. Doppler Global Velocimetry (DGV) has been used to measure the velocity field of drug particles. Various tasks involved in the application of DGV to these flow-fields are described. In particular, the use of time-integrated DGV for measurements of unsteady, short-duration flows is discussed. Time-integrated DGV, applied at a range of operating conditions, has provided information on the variation of particle delivery velocity with particle size and with total mass of particles. Time-resolved DGV measurements reveal that particles first emerge in a slow-moving cloud which is driven by transient starting process in the gas flow, followed by a faster stream of particles entrained in a quasi-steady gas flow. The experimental results are complemented by numerical computations of certain aspects of the drug delivery flows. These computations are compared with experimental results, and used to gain additional information on the functioning of the system as a whole.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-132).

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The skin serves as a semi-permeable barrier that protects the body from pathogens and water loss. The stratum corneum, the upper 10-15 µm layer of skin, is the primary barrier layer. Due to its structure, only drugs that are lipophilic and with a low molecular weight (<500 Da) can penetrate intact skin. This study examines the use of microdermabrasion as a method of removing the stratum corneum to increase the skin's permeability to hydrophilic molecules, proteins, and vaccines. Microdermabrasion is a FDA-approved cosmetic skin resurfacing procedure that removes the stratum by bombarding it with abrasive particles under vacuum. The aims of this thesis are focused on optimizing the microdermabrasion conditions that will selectively remove stratum corneum, evaluating the transport of different sized molecules through abraded skin in vitro, examining drug efficacy in vivo by delivering insulin to diabetic rats, and examining the rate of skin healing after treatment. Microdermabrasion can be used as a non-invasive transdermal drug technique to safely remove stratum corneum to make the skin more permeable to waters soluble drugs and proteins.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--School of Chemical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004. Directed by Mark R. Prausnitz. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-158).

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