Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the US. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for ~80% of all lung cancer cases. Despite the advances in treatment options such as targeted therapy, immunotherapy, etc. the 5-year survival rate for NSCLC patients is about 20%. There is a need to develop newer drugs and treatment strategies to improve the overall survival and patient health.Toward this aim, the Kunda lab explores different strategies:

1. Design and formulate chemotherapeutic-loaded nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems suitable for inhalation

   • An inhalable formulation would deposit majority of the dose in the lungs and decreases systemic exposure of the drug which would in turn reduce systemic side-effects

2. Targeted nanoparticulate systems encapsulating anti-cancer drugs to preferentially accumulate in the tumor tissues

3. Investigate the potential of anti-microbial peptides (AMPs) as anti-cancer drugs and to develop inhalable dry powder formulations

4. Repurpose FDA-approved drugs as anti-cancer drugs

5. Formulation of combinatorial treatments (i.e. combining multiple drugs that attack cancer tissue via different mechanisms)

Vaccine save more lives than any other medical intervention. It is estimated that more than 3 million deaths every year are prevented due to vaccine use. Despite the obvious advantages, every year 1 in 5 children are not vaccinated. This is mostly due to lack of vaccine availability and/or affordability. Conventional vaccines are liquids that need to be either refrigerated or frozen (i.e. cold-chain) all through storage and distribution. In addition, you need trained healthcare professionals to administer these vaccines as injectables. All of these factors significantly increase the cost of the vaccine. These are major hindrances in low-and-middle income countries that often result in poor vaccination rates. To overcome this challenge, the Kunda lab aims to remove the cold-chain dependence of vaccines by formulating them as dry powders. Further, we engineer these dry powders so that they are suitable for inhalation allowing for self-administration by the individual at-home.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a significant health challenge worldwide, affecting more than 10 million people. In the past five decades, only three anti-tuberculous drugs have been approved by regulatory agencies and they belong to BCS class II/IV having low aqueous solubility and bioavailability. Oral administration of poorly soluble drugs requires frequent high doses to attain the therapeutic window. In addition, longer treatment duration for six months often leads to systemic side-effects and reduced patient adherence. Our work focuses on improving the aqueous solubility of anti-TB drugs using several novel drug delivery technologies and enabling oral inhalation delivery.

Majority of the small molecules (APIs) suffer from solubility and permeability issues which poses a great challenge in developing formulations for drug delivery. To address this, our lab works on drug delivery systems such as lipid nano-carriers (cubosomes and liposomes) and other biodegradable and non-biodegradabale polymeric nanoparticles to improve solubility and permeability. WE also explore techniques such as spray-drying to formulate amorphous solid dispersions to improve solubility for poorly soluble drugs.