Novel drug-delivery approaches to the blood-brain barrier
1Department of Neurology, Changhai Hospital, 2Stem Cells and Medical Research Center, 3Department of Gerontology, Changhai Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China
4Department of Genetics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06519, USA
#These authors contributed equally to this review.
Corresponding authors: Yangtai Guan and Mingyuan Liu. E-mail: yangtaiguan@hotmail.com, liu.mingyuan@foxmail.com
Abstract
The blood-brain barrier (BBB) maintains homeostasis by blocking toxic molecules from the circulation, but drugs are blocked at the same time. When the dose is increased to enhance the drug concentration in the central nervous system, there are side-effects on peripheral organs. In recent years, genetic therapeutic agents and small molecules have been used in various strategies to penetrate the BBB while minimizing the damage to systemic organs. In this review, we describe several representative methods to circumvent or cross the BBB, including chemical and physical strategies.
Keywords
drug delivery; blood-brain barrier; nanoparticles; focused ultrasound
