Abstract:
Nano-based delivery systems have attracted a great deal of attention in the past two decades as a strategy to overcome the low therapeutic index of conventional anticancer drugs. Nanoparticles enable the delivery of a great variety of drugs including analgesics, anti-Alzheimer's drugs, cardiovascular drugs, and several macromolecules into the brain after intravenous injection of animals. The mechanism of nanoparticle-mediated drug transport across the blood-brain barrier appears to be receptor-mediated endocytosis followed by drug release within the endothelial cells. Modification of the nanoparticle surface with covalently attached targeting ligands lead to the adsorption of specific proteins after injection is necessary for this receptor-mediated uptake. A very critical and important requirement for nanoparticulate brain delivery is that the employed nanoparticles are biocompatible and, moreover, rapidly biodegradable, i.e. over a time frame of a few days. In addition to enabling drug delivery to the brain, PLGA-based nanoparticles, with bisabolol inside, may importantly reduce the drug's toxicity. Because of the possibility to treat severe central nervous system diseases such as brain tumors and to even transport proteins and other macromolecules across the blood–brain barrier, this technology holds great promise for a non-invasive therapy of these diseases.
