Matias Mariana, Santos Adriana O, Silvestre Samuel, Alves Gilberto
CICS-UBI-Health Sciences Research Centre, University of Beira Interior, Av. Infante D. Henrique, 6200-506 Covilhã, Portugal.
CNC-Centre for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra, 3004-517 Coimbra, Portugal.
Pharmaceutics. 2023 Jan 17;15(2):306. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics15020306.
Epilepsy is a chronic and complex condition and is one of the most common neurological diseases, affecting about 50 million people worldwide. Pharmacological therapy has been, and is likely to remain, the main treatment approach for this disease. Although a large number of new antiseizure drugs (ASDs) has been introduced into the market in the last few years, many patients suffer from uncontrolled seizures, demanding the development of more effective therapies. Nanomedicines have emerged as a promising approach to deliver drugs to the brain, potentiating their therapeutic index. Moreover, nanomedicine has applied the knowledge of nanoscience, not only in disease treatment but also in prevention and diagnosis. In the current review, the general features and therapeutic management of epilepsy will be addressed, as well as the main barriers to overcome to obtain better antiseizure therapies. Furthermore, the role of nanomedicines as a valuable tool to selectively deliver drugs will be discussed, considering the ability of nanocarriers to deal with the less favourable physical-chemical properties of some ASDs, enhance their brain penetration, reduce the adverse effects, and circumvent the concerning drug resistance.
癫痫是一种慢性复杂疾病，也是最常见的神经系统疾病之一，全球约有5000万人受其影响。药物治疗一直是且可能仍将是这种疾病的主要治疗方法。尽管在过去几年中大量新型抗癫痫药物（ASDs）已投放市场，但许多患者的癫痫发作仍无法得到有效控制，这就需要开发更有效的治疗方法。纳米药物已成为一种将药物输送到大脑的有前景的方法，可提高其治疗指数。此外，纳米医学不仅将纳米科学知识应用于疾病治疗，还应用于预防和诊断。在当前的综述中，将阐述癫痫的一般特征和治疗管理，以及为获得更好的抗癫痫治疗需克服的主要障碍。此外，还将讨论纳米药物作为选择性给药的宝贵工具的作用，考虑到纳米载体处理某些ASDs不利物理化学性质、增强其脑渗透性、减少不良反应以及规避令人担忧的耐药性的能力。
