Development of lipid nanocapsules as a strategy to overcome the passage across the blood-brain barrier of drug substances acting on the central nervous system

Abstract

Diseases affecting the central nervous system (CNS) should be regarded as a major health challenge due to their steadily rising incidences and to the current lack of effective treatments given the hindrance to brain drug delivery imposed by the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Some of the described delivery strategies to circumvent the BBB such as the direct intracerebral administration and the artificial disruption of the tight junctions involve high risk of neurological damage. Hence, every effort is currently being devoted to achieving efficient transport across the brain endothelium with targeted drug carriers following minimally-invasive intravenous injection. In particular, nanomedicine is chiefly germane to the field of chemotherapy wherein dose availability at the target site cannot be enhanced by dose increase for fear of severe side effects. Since efficient brain targeting should not solely rely on passive targeting, brain active targeting of nanomedicines into the CNS is being explored...