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Nanoparticulate devices for brain drug delivery
Author(s) -
Celia Christian,
Cosco Donato,
Paolino Donatella,
Fresta Massimo
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
medicinal research reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.868
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1098-1128
pISSN - 0198-6325
DOI - 10.1002/med.20201
Subject(s) - drug delivery , biopharmaceutical , biocompatible material , blood–brain barrier , drug , targeted drug delivery , medicine , brain tissue , central nervous system , nanotechnology , drug delivery to the brain , pharmacology , neuroscience , biomedical engineering , biology , materials science , microbiology and biotechnology
The blood–brain barrier (BBB) limits the transport of therapeutic molecules from the blood compartment into the brain, thus greatly reducing the species of therapeutic compounds that can be efficiently accumulated in the central nervous system (CNS). Various strategies have been proposed for improving the delivery of drugs to this tissue, and numerous invasive and noninvasive methods have been proposed by different scientists in an attempt to circumvent the BBB and to increase the delivery of drug compounds into the brain. An interesting alternative, in the solution of this problem and also that of reaching a suitable target in the CNS, has recently been provided through the use of nanoparticulate colloidal devices as a noninvasive technique for brain drug delivery. These systems offer diverse advantages over invasive strategies, because (1) they are designed using biocompatible and biodegradable materials; (2) they avoid the disruption and/or modification of the BBB; and (3) they modulate the biopharmaceutical properties of the entrapped drugs. Moreover, the possibility of targeting specific brain tissue, thanks to ligands linked to the surface of the nanoparticulate colloidal devices, confers the necessary characteristics for the treatment of CNS pathologies to these drug carriers. The aim of this review is to focus on describing the main strategies in use for designing nanoparticulate colloidal devices for CNS delivery, their potentiality as noninvasive strategies in the delivery of drugs to the cerebral tissues, and their biological and clinical applications in cerebral drug delivery. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Med Res Rev 31:716‐756, 2011