Polymer nanomaterials for drug delivery across the blood brain barrier

Abstract

Tremendous efforts in the last several decades have resulted in numerous inventions for central nervous system (CNS) drug delivery systems. Many of these innovative systems have a significant potential for the development of new biomedical applications. The wide variety of strategies reflects the inherent difficulty in transport of therapeutic and imaging agents across the blood brain barrier (BBB). In fact, the effective combination of several approaches, such as encapsulation of drugs into nanoparticles (NPs) conjugated with vector moieties or using micelles of Pluronic® block copolymers along with Pluronic® “unimers” that will inhibit drug efflux transporters in the brain microvessel endothelial cells BMVEC, may give the most promising CNS therapeutic outcomes.