{"id":216875,"date":"2025-05-29T15:47:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T01:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=216875"},"modified":"2025-06-03T10:13:32","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T20:13:32","slug":"drug-system-targets-lung-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/05\/29\/drug-system-targets-lung-damage\/","title":{"rendered":"New drug system targets COVID-19 associated lung damage"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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Saguna Verma and Juwon Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new drug delivery system developed by researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at M\u0101noa John A. Burns School of Medicine<\/a> (JABSOM<\/abbr>) and Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea may significantly reduce serious lung damage. The study was recently published in the Journal of Controlled Release<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The team designed tiny particles, called lipid nanoparticles (LNP<\/abbr>s), to carry two drugs directly to immune cells in the lungs called neutrophils. Using COVID-19 as a model, they showed that the LNP<\/abbr>s only targeted these lung cells, didn\u2019t cause harm and reduced inflammation and early signs of scarring in mice.<\/p>\n

The researchers hope this new method can also be used to treat other lung conditions like the flu and sepsis by targeting different immune cells or delivering other types of medicine.<\/p>\n

“This project is a great example of how interdisciplinary research can facilitate the development of novel drug delivery platforms and evaluate their efficiency in animal models,” said Saguna Verma, JABSOM<\/abbr> professor of tropical medicine. “Recently, LNP<\/abbr>-based selective organ targeting (SORT<\/abbr>) has been developed for specifically targeting the liver, lung or spleen. However, the strength of this study is that our LNP<\/abbr>s are designed not only to target the lung but specifically to lung neutrophils.”<\/p>\n

Researchers used 糖心视频<\/abbr>\u2019s high-security lab to safely study the virus. For the first time, they were able to send two drugs—DNase I and Sivelestat—directly to infection-fighting cells in the lungs using a new delivery method.<\/p>\n

Normally, these immune cells release web-like traps (called NET<\/abbr>s) to catch germs. However, when too many are made, they can harm the lungs and lead to serious problems, especially in illnesses like COVID-19, explained Juwon Park of 糖心视频<\/abbr> M\u0101noa.<\/p>\n

“Although drugs that block NET<\/abbr>s exist, they often require high doses due to instability in the body and nonspecific off-target effects,” Park said. “Our new approach overcomes these limitations by delivering both drugs directly to lung neutrophils using lipid nanoparticles, which improves drug effectiveness and minimizes side effects.”<\/p>\n

Read more at JABSOM<\/abbr><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers developed a novel nanoparticle system to deliver drugs directly to lung cells, potentially easing COVID-19-related lung injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[1040,1417,31,1363,1600,158,9],"class_list":["post-216875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-biomedical-science","tag-covid-19-research","tag-john-a-burns-school-of-medicine","tag-manoa-research","tag-public-impact-research","tag-publication","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t