Development of immunotherapy and nanoparticles-based strategies for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the most common progressive neurodegenerative disorder and is characterized by the degeneration of dopamine (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNC). To date, none of the strategies, such as pharmacological, non-pharmacological, and neurosurgical therapies, have been capable of fundamental treatment of PD. These types of treatments provide only symptomatic relief, and effective targeting for PD has lagged behind other disease areas, due to drug delivery challenges caused by the blood–brain barrier (BBB). This review focus on the immunologic and nanoformulation strategies used for the treatment of PD. In this review, we discuss the current strategies that offer the development of immunotherapies, antibody-based therapies, and nanoparticles (NPs)-based therapy to reduce the burden of degeneration of DA neurons due to synucleinopathies and elevation of proinflammatory cytokines in the central nervous system (CNS). Furthermore, this review presents current ongoing clinical trials. The accumulation and transmission of α-synuclein and activation of glial cells cause the death of dopaminergic neurons and lead to the progression of PD. Many studies have investigated the immunotherapies and NPs-based therapy that target α-synuclein, and microglia, which have been shown to effectively prevent the progression of α-synuclein deposition and microglia deactivation. Furthermore, at present, the formulations of different drugs, such as DA, levodopa (L-DOPA), monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAO-I), and antioxidants, is administered with a multifunctional carrier that can penetrate the BBB. Therefore, rapid clinical progression on these strategies gives new hope in the therapy of PD.