scholarly journals Blood-Brain Barrier Therapeutics for Neurological Diseases

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aarushi Sahni ◽  
Nicole Katchur

The Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB) is a highly selective filter responsible for allowing certain gases such as oxygen and lipid-soluble molecules to pass (Anand 2014). Its selectiveness makes it challenging for many therapeutics to combat Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease with external drug therapies. Large-molecule drug therapies never pass the BBB while small-molecule drugs pass only about 5% of the time (Pardridge 2005). In Alzheimer’s disease, tight junctions between endothelial cells degrade, causing an unregulated accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) protein (Ramanathan 2015). Consequently, this leads to the formation of neurofibrillary tangles that cut off the nutrient supply to the brain cells and kill neurons (Ramanathan 2015). In Parkinson’s disease, astrocyte mutations cause a build-up of α-synuclein (αSyn) which affects the neuroinflammatory response and causes dysfunction in dopaminergic neurons (Booth 2017; Meade 2019). New drug therapies for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s continue to undergo trials; some such as FPS-ZM1 and tilavonemab for Alzheimer’s and Ravicti for Parkinson’s have shown promising results. In addition, similarities in dysfunction for both diseases and some types of cancer have sparked possibilities in retargeting cancer drugs to improve Alzheimer's and Parkinson’s pathologies. This review will summarize current therapeutic advancements for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and their possible future contributions.

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (37) ◽  
pp. 4721-4737 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhumika Kumar ◽  
Mukesh Pandey ◽  
Faheem H. Pottoo ◽  
Faizana Fayaz ◽  
Anjali Sharma ◽  
...  

Parkinson’s disease is one of the most severe progressive neurodegenerative disorders, having a mortifying effect on the health of millions of people around the globe. The neural cells producing dopamine in the substantia nigra of the brain die out. This leads to symptoms like hypokinesia, rigidity, bradykinesia, and rest tremor. Parkinsonism cannot be cured, but the symptoms can be reduced with the intervention of medicinal drugs, surgical treatments, and physical therapies. Delivering drugs to the brain for treating Parkinson’s disease is very challenging. The blood-brain barrier acts as a highly selective semi-permeable barrier, which refrains the drug from reaching the brain. Conventional drug delivery systems used for Parkinson’s disease do not readily cross the blood barrier and further lead to several side-effects. Recent advancements in drug delivery technologies have facilitated drug delivery to the brain without flooding the bloodstream and by directly targeting the neurons. In the era of Nanotherapeutics, liposomes are an efficient drug delivery option for brain targeting. Liposomes facilitate the passage of drugs across the blood-brain barrier, enhances the efficacy of the drugs, and minimize the side effects related to it. The review aims at providing a broad updated view of the liposomes, which can be used for targeting Parkinson’s disease.


Pharmaceutics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Giunchedi ◽  
Elisabetta Gavini ◽  
Maria Cristina Bonferoni

Nose-to-brain delivery represents a big challenge. In fact there is a large number of neurological diseases that require therapies in which the drug must reach the brain, avoiding the difficulties due to the blood–brain barrier (BBB) and the problems connected with systemic administration, such as drug bioavailability and side-effects. For these reasons the development of nasal formulations able to deliver the drug directly into the brain is of increasing importance. This Editorial regards the contributions present in the Special Issue “Nose-to-Brain Delivery”.


2007 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brinda S. Desai ◽  
Angela J. Monahan ◽  
Paul M. Carvey ◽  
Bill Hendey

2012 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 1139-1151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary A Rosenberg

Disruption of the blood–brain barrier (BBB) has an important part in cellular damage in neurological diseases, including acute and chronic cerebral ischemia, brain trauma, multiple sclerosis, brain tumors, and brain infections. The neurovascular unit (NVU) forms the interface between the blood and brain tissues. During an injury, the cascade of molecular events ends in the final common pathway for BBB disruption by free radicals and proteases, which attack membranes and degrade the tight junction proteins in endothelial cells. Free radicals of oxygen and nitrogen and the proteases, matrix metalloproteinases and cyclooxgyenases, are important in the early and delayed BBB disruption as the neuroinflammatory response progresses. Opening of the BBB occurs in neurodegenerative diseases and contributes to the cognitive changes. In addition to the importance of the NVU in acute injury, angiogenesis contributes to the recovery process. The challenges to treatment of the brain diseases involve not only facilitating drug entry into the brain, but also understanding the timing of the molecular cascades to block the early NVU injury without interfering with recovery. This review will describe the molecular and cellular events associated with NVU disruption and potential strategies directed toward restoring its integrity.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linan Liu ◽  
Mark A. Eckert ◽  
Hamidreza Riazifar ◽  
Dong-Ku Kang ◽  
Dritan Agalliu ◽  
...  

Systemically infused mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are emerging therapeutics for treating stroke, acute injuries, and inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), as well as brain tumors due to their regenerative capacity and ability to secrete trophic, immune modulatory, or other engineered therapeutic factors. It is hypothesized that transplanted MSCs home to and engraft at ischemic and injured sites in the brain in order to exert their therapeutic effects. However, whether MSCs possess the ability to migrate across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) that separates the blood from the brain remains unresolved. This review analyzes recent advances in this area in an attempt to elucidate whether systemically infused MSCs are able to actively transmigrate across the CNS endothelium, particularly under conditions of injury or stroke. Understanding the fate of transplanted MSCs and their CNS trafficking mechanisms will facilitate the development of more effective stem-cell-based therapeutics and drug delivery systems to treat neurological diseases and brain tumors.


2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Rios Romenets ◽  
Y. Dauvilliers ◽  
V. Cochen De Cock ◽  
B. Carlander ◽  
S. Bayard ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 934 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romain Versele ◽  
Mariangela Corsi ◽  
Andrea Fuso ◽  
Emmanuel Sevin ◽  
Rita Businaro ◽  
...  

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by the abnormal accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides in the brain. The pathological process has not yet been clarified, although dysfunctional transport of Aβ across the blood–brain barrier (BBB) appears to be integral to disease development. At present, no effective therapeutic treatment against AD exists, and the adoption of a ketogenic diet (KD) or ketone body (KB) supplements have been investigated as potential new therapeutic approaches. Despite experimental evidence supporting the hypothesis that KBs reduce the Aβ load in the AD brain, little information is available about the effect of KBs on BBB and their effect on Aβ transport. Therefore, we used a human in vitro BBB model, brain-like endothelial cells (BLECs), to investigate the effect of KBs on the BBB and on Aβ transport. Our results show that KBs do not modify BBB integrity and do not cause toxicity to BLECs. Furthermore, the presence of KBs in the culture media was combined with higher MCT1 and GLUT1 protein levels in BLECs. In addition, KBs significantly enhanced the protein levels of LRP1, P-gp, and PICALM, described to be involved in Aβ clearance. Finally, the combined use of KBs promotes Aβ efflux across the BBB. Inhibition experiments demonstrated the involvement of LRP1 and P-gp in the efflux. This work provides evidence that KBs promote Aβ clearance from the brain to blood in addition to exciting perspectives for studying the use of KBs in therapeutic approaches.


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