Nanoparticle and Desired Drug to Cross the Blood-Brain Barrier in case of Neurodegenerative Diseases

Release Date: 12-Nov-2020

Neurodegenerative diseases are the second most widely diagnosed disease after cancer across the globe, therefore, to tackle this a group of researchers from Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) are now focused towards developing a nanoparticle that could efficiently deliver the drugs inside the brain to treat the cells that have been targeted and made dysfunctional by the neurodegenerative diseases. As per research conducted, it is observed that brain is one the most complex organ to treat as the blood-brain barrier present there doesn’t allow the researchers to deliver drugs against some of the neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer and Parkinson.

Therefore, the research conducted by the researchers are focused towards development of nanoparticles with some of the specific properties capable of getting captured by the neuronal cells that have been targeted by the disease. As per the researchers, the scientific development by them will be able to treat millions of patients who have been waiting for an efficient treatment for their diseases.

According to the researchers involved in this respective study, the use of nanoparticles encapsulated with the drugs in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases could be used to increase the efficiency of the therapies as with the help of nanoparticles, drugs can easily bypass the blood-brain barrier. The respective theory was first evaluated on zebrafish. It was found that the drug with the help of nanoparticles was able to cross the blood brain barrier. Also, no such side effects were observed in the model organisms. The nanoparticles were made with polylactic acid (PLA), which is a biocompatible material. Also, the nanoparticle was covered with polyethylene glycol (PEG). The positive outlook of the respective clinical study gave the researchers a green flag to test the study on other animal models.