Helmbrecht Hawley, Joseph Andrea, McKenna Michael, Zhang Mengying, Nance Elizabeth
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle WA 98195.
Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute, University of Washington, Seattle WA 98105.
Curr Opin Chem Eng. 2020 Dec;30(12):112-119. doi: 10.1016/j.coche.2020.08.010. Epub 2020 Oct 18.
Neurological diseases account for a significant portion of the global disease burden. While research efforts have identified potential drugs or drug targets for neurological diseases, most therapeutic platforms are still ineffective at reaching the target location selectively and with high yield. Restricted transport, including passage across the blood-brain barrier, through the brain parenchyma, and into specific cells, is a major cause of ineffective therapeutic delivery. However, nanotechnology is a promising, tailorable platform for overcoming these transport barriers and improving therapeutic delivery to the brain. We provide a transport-oriented analysis of nanotechnology's ability to navigate these transport barriers in the brain. We also provide an opinion on the need for technology development for increasing our capacity to characterize and quantify nanoparticle passage through each transport barrier. Finally, we highlight the importance of incorporating the effect of disease, metabolic state, and regional dependencies to better understand transport of nanotherapeutics in the brain.
神经系统疾病在全球疾病负担中占很大比例。虽然研究工作已经确定了针对神经系统疾病的潜在药物或药物靶点，但大多数治疗平台在选择性且高效地到达目标位置方面仍然无效。受限的转运，包括穿过血脑屏障、通过脑实质以及进入特定细胞，是治疗递送无效的主要原因。然而，纳米技术是一个有前景的、可定制的平台，用于克服这些转运障碍并改善向大脑的治疗递送。我们提供了一个以转运为导向的分析，探讨纳米技术在大脑中克服这些转运障碍的能力。我们还就技术开发的必要性发表了意见，以提高我们表征和量化纳米颗粒穿过每个转运屏障的能力。最后，我们强调了纳入疾病、代谢状态和区域依赖性的影响以更好地理解纳米治疗剂在大脑中的转运的重要性。
