Abstract
Delivery of drugs into the brain is one of the most interesting and challenging areas of research. The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a highly selective semipermeable membrane that separates blood from the brain in the central nervous system. It acts as a barrier to protect the brain from microbes, neurotoxins and other chemical substances and also blocks the entry of many drugs into the brain. An estimated 6.8 billion people die every year from CNS diseases like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, sclerosis, brain stroke, dementia and others. According to WHO, one billion people are affected worldwide, about 50 million suffer from epilepsy and 24 million suffer from Alzheimer and other dementias. This indicates the importance of the delivery of drugs into the brain for treating various neurological diseases and psychological disorders. In drug targeting, a concept was introduced by Dr. Paul Ehrlich as a ‘magic bullet’ that gave tremendous hope for the researches to deliver drugs into the brain. This review discuses about various drug targeting strategies and applications of nanotechnology in designing drug delivery systems with the ability to cross through the BBB for treating neurological diseases.
Highlights
Worldwide, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease are the most commonly caused neurodegenerative diseases
The primary phase in the therapy of neural illness is the diffusion of drugs across the blood-brain barrier (BBB)
Nanoparticle is considered one of the most efficient carriers to transport the therapeutic agent to the targeted site [4]
Summary
Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease are the most commonly caused neurodegenerative diseases. Nanoparticles (NPs) coupled with polymeric materials, can pass through the BBB and promotes the delivery of drugs into the CNS [10]. Dr Paul Ehrlich termed that a carrier-drug complex should act only on the targeted site just as the bullet target a specific point [14] This concept gave tremendous hope for scientists for achieving the passage of drugs through the BBB. The nanoparticles penetrate through the tight junctions between the endothelial cells and allow the drug to pass through the BBB [17]. The nanoparticles due to their mean particle size, zeta potential and hydrophilicity play a major role for the transport of drugs Due to their small size, they can be penetrated through the BBB.
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