Micro-sized composite drugs based on sodium caseinate for inhalation administration

The development of alternative methods of drug administration is an actual area of modern pharmaceuticals. Inhalation administration is one of the promising routes. Casein is the optimal matrix for creating dosage forms with improved characteristics due to the developed surface with many binding sites, biocompatibility, and the possibility of forming nano aggregates in a solution. The high thermal stability of milk proteins as well as the ability to control their solubility makes it possible to use the spray drying method to obtain composite microparticles with a narrow size distribution. Such microparticles can be used in the inhalation delivery of drugs of both local and systemic effects. In the present work, microparticles of a model drug with sodium caseinate were obtained. The average diameter of the obtained particles was 1.2 µm. It was shown that the protein matrix provides an increase in the drug content in solution with a high release rate, which is necessary for inhalation delivery. The results can be used to create drug administration systems based on protein molecules of various nature.