A new approach for drug targeting to the central nervous system

Author(s):  
Berrin Küçüktürkmen ◽  
Asuman Bozkır
Author(s):  
Eric Lueshen ◽  
Indu Venugopal ◽  
Andreas Linninger

Intrathecal (IT) drug delivery is a standard technique which involves direct injection of drugs into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)-filled space within the spinal canal to treat many diseases of the central nervous system. Currently, in order to reach the therapeutic drug concentration at certain locations within the spinal canal, high drug doses are used. With no method to deliver the large drug doses locally, current IT drug delivery treatments are hindered with wide drug distributions throughout the central nervous system (CNS) which cause harmful side effects. In order to overcome the current limitations of IT drug delivery, we have developed the novel method of intrathecal magnetic drug targeting (IT-MDT). Gold-coated magnetite nanoparticles are infused into a physiologically and anatomically relevant in vitro human spine model and then targeted to a specific site using external magnetic fields, resulting in a substantial increase in therapeutic nanoparticle localization at the site of interest. Experiments aiming to determine the effect of key parameters such as magnet strength, duration of magnetic field exposure, location of magnetic field, and ferrous implants on the collection efficiency of our superparamagnetic nanoparticles in the targeting region were performed. Our experiments indicate that intrathecal magnetic drug targeting and implant-assisted IT-MDT are promising techniques for concentrating and localizing drug-functionalized nanoparticles at required target sites within the spinal canal for potential treatment of diseases affecting the central nervous system.


Neurosurgery ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 1058-1064 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippe Menei ◽  
Jean-Pierre Benoit ◽  
Michelle Boisdron-Celle ◽  
Dominique Fournier ◽  
Philippe Mercier ◽  
...  

Neurosurgery ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 1058-1064 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippe Menei ◽  
Jean-Pierre Benoit ◽  
Michelle Boisdron-Celle ◽  
Dominique Fournier ◽  
Philippe Mercier ◽  
...  

2011 ◽  
pp. 1489-1517
Author(s):  
Gert Fricker ◽  
Anne Mahringer ◽  
Melanie Ott ◽  
Valeska Reichel

2009 ◽  
Vol 98 (7) ◽  
pp. 2501-2515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shyeilla V. Dhuria ◽  
Leah R. Hanson ◽  
William H. Frey

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-65
Author(s):  
Lawrence Wile

Neurotheology is the study of the neurobiological correlates of religious experiences. A key problem for this nascent field is that interpretations of religious experiences range from a regression to the oceanic oneness of the womb to supersensory apprehensions of transcendent realities. Identifying appropriate subjects is therefore problematic. Correlating the complex array of neurobiological data obtained from neuroimaging, genetic analysis and lab tests with such elusive “religious experiences” offers little hope of scientific rigor. This paper proposes a new approach. Mystical traditions have consistently described a “subtle anatomy” organized around a circuit running through the center of the spine that connects the human and the divine. If descriptions of this circuit are based on actual interoceptions, then it corresponds to a little-known, epigenetically suppressed structure that ensheathes the central axis of the central nervous system; Reissner’s fiber (RF). Rather than identifying subjects based on self-reporting and correlating their experiences with an array of neurobiological data, this new approach would regenerate the fiber, measure its activity and explore possible correlations with religious experiences.


Author(s):  

Burkitt’s lymphoma (BL) is one of the high-grade lymphomas, characterized by a rapid growth. They are usually treated with intensive chemotherapy regimens, being normally chemo-sensitive, but at the expense of high toxicity secondary to treatment. Additionally, the compromise of the central nervous system (CNS) implies a major risk as well as greater toxicity, taking into account a worse clinical prognosis with a requirement of more intensive schemes to achieve control of the disease. This implies doubts in the management of older patients with BL with CNS compromise, in whom toxicity is a limitation to these therapies, and there are no other alternatives that offer better benefit in terms of less frequent or severe adverse events, with similar outcomes in terms of progression-free survival (PFS) or overall survival (OS). Therefore, clarifying cases such as the one we report below allows us to provide a therapeutic alternative for older or unfit patients, in whom the intention of treatment should be to seek a good tumor response, but without ignoring the potential toxicity of chemotherapy.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
James H. Kryklywy ◽  
Mana R. Ehlers ◽  
Andre O. Beukers ◽  
Sarah R. Moore ◽  
Rebecca M. Todd ◽  
...  

AbstractIn the somatosensory system, hedonic information is coded by mechanoreceptors at the point of contact. Pleasure and pain signals travel along peripheral nerve pathways distinct from those for discriminative touch. Yet it remains unknown whether the central nervous system represents tactile hedonic information in sensory cortices as another dimension of exteroceptive information, similar to discriminative touch signals, or if tactile hedonic information is instantiated in regions mediating internal interoceptive states. Employing representational similarity analysis with a new approach of pattern component modeling, we decomposed multivoxel patterns to demonstrate that signals of painful but not pleasurable touch are represented in primary somatosensory cortices. By contrast, all hedonic touch representations were identified in regions associated with affect and interoception. This suggests that touch should be divided into external-exteroceptive and internal-interoceptive dimensions, with hedonic touch represented as an internal state, even though evoked by external stimulation.


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