New Advances in Drug Therapy: Crossing the Blood Brain Barrier
Recent research has discovered new ways to deliver drugs to the brain through the blood brain barrier. This blood brain barrier is created by specialized cells that safeguard the brain from unwanted substances. Cornell researchers were able to create a drug called Lexiscan, which activates receptors that are on the blood brain barrier. Their goal in developing this drug was to open the barrier for a brief amount of time, just enough to deliver the pharmacological treatment to the brain in order to treat neurological disorders. They were able to make headway by delivering chemotherapy drugs into the brains of mice with Lexiscan and then having the antibodies bind onto the Amyloid-β plaques present in Alzheimer’s disease. This new breakthrough shows not only a new development in the pharmaceutical industry, but a new approach to treat diseases that would otherwise be left untreated because of the inability of other therapies to pass through the blood brain barrier. Diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, autism, and brain tumors that were otherwise unable to be treated with drug therapy, all have a new potential to be cured as drugs are now able to cross the blood brain barrier.
~Albert Wang
Sources:
Opening the Blood-Brain Barrier to Deliver Drugs For Brain Diseases
A2A Adenosine Receptor Modulates Drug Efflux Transporter P-Glycoprotein at the Blood-Brain Barrier
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May 25, 2016
For example, without help only 5 percent of smokers can quit but that number rises to 30 percent when people seek both drug therapy and counseling. However, the drug therapy also has some side effects such as skin rash, fever, peripheral neuritis, and polyarteritis.
October 13, 2016
Wow this opens up TONS of new opportunities! Thanks for the info. I’m really loving the posts on these blogs :)