Nano carriers for drug transport across the blood brain barrier

Xinming Li, John Tsibouklis, Tingting Weng, Buning Zhang, Guoqiang Yin, Guangzhu Feng, Yingde Cui, Irina N Savina, Lyuba I Mikhalovska, Susan R Sandeman, Carol A Howel, Sergey V Mikhalovsky

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Abstract

Effective therapy lies in achieving a therapeutic amount of drug to the proper site in the body and then maintaining the desired drug concentration for a sufficient time interval to be clinically effective for treatment. The blood brain barrier (BBB) hinders most drugs from entering the central nervous system (CNS) from the blood stream, leading to the difficulty of delivering drugsto the brain via the circulatory system for the treatment, diagnosis and prevention of brain diseases. Several brain drug delivery approaches have been developed such as intracerebral and intracerebroventricular administration, intranasal delivery, and blood-to-brain delivery as a result of transient BBB disruption induced by biological, chemical or physical stimuli such as zonula occludens toxin, mannitol, magnetic heating and ultrasound, but these approaches showed disadvantages of being dangerous, high cost as well as unsuitability for most brain diseases and drugs. The strategy of vector-mediated blood-to-brain delivery which involves improving BBB permeability of the drug-carrier conjugate can minimize such side effects; being submicrometre objects that behave as a whole unit in terms of their transport and properties, nanomaterials are promising carrier vehicles for direct drug transport across the intact BBB as a result of their potential to enter the brain capillary endothelial cells by means of normal endocytosis and transcytosis due to their small size, as well as their possibility of being functionalized with multiple copies of the drug molecule of interest. This review provids a concise discussion of nano carriers for drug transport across the intact BBB, various forms of nanomaterials including inorganic/solid lipid/polymeric nanoparticles, nanoemulsions, quantum dots, nanogels, liposomes, micelles, dendrimers, polymersomes and exosomes are critically evaluated, their mechanisms for drug transport across the BBB are reviewed, and the future directions of this area are fully discussed.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)17-28
JournalJournal of Drug Targeting
Volume25
Issue number1
Early online date28 Apr 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2017

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