Breakthrough Enables Medicines to Reach the Brain 

Breakthrough Enables Medicines to Reach the Brain 
Breakthrough Enables Medicines to Reach the Brain 

United States: The blood-brain barrier is a special protective shield which really keeps harmful germs and toxins away from your brain and somehow, it also makes it really very hard for the important medicines to actually reach the brain. 

But now, scientists think they’ve found a way to get drugs past this barrier. A research team from Mount Sinai tested a method on mice, using the natural way cells transport things into the brain. Their findings were published in the journal Nature Biotechnology. 

The therapies achieved the goal of counteracting rogue genes in the brains of lab mice that are associated with ALS, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, the team said. 

As reported by the HealthDay, “The blood-brain barrier is actually a valuable defense component, but it is such a thorn in the side to drug delivery to the brain,” said Yizhou Dong, a senior researcher and professor of immunology and immunotherapy in the Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai. 

Breakthrough Enables Medicines to Reach the Brain 
Breakthrough Enables Medicines to Reach the Brain 

The new technique known as the blood-brain barrier-crossing conjugate (BCC) system ’breaks this barrier,’ Dong said, helping medication ‘to enter the central nervous system without harm or waste.’ 

Blood-brain barrier is a layer of close and tightly connected cells located at the blood vessels lining the brain as defined by the Cleveland Clinic. 

The barrier prevents more voluminous molecules that could otherwise enter the brain through the blood stream. It protects the brain from bacteria, virus or any poisonous substance getting into the brain but makes it rather difficult to introduce drugs into the brain. 

The new technique is called transcytosis by which substances are transported through themselves across the cells. The substance just enters the cell, gets transported around the cell contents, and finally is ejected from the other side of the cell. 

Breakthrough Enables Medicines to Reach the Brain 
Breakthrough Enables Medicines to Reach the Brain 

The authors of the paper said that researchers were able to deliver gene-based drugs into the bloodstream of mice with the help of a compound called BCC10. 

Scientists said that the BCC10 compound employed uptake across a cell membrane in the barrier leading to a transcytosis process that causes cells forming the barrier to transport the drugs across the barrier from within. 

The treatment was easy on the mice and had little negative impact on any key organ, according to the researchers. 

“Our platform could potentially solve one of the biggest challenges in neuroscience research – how to deliver large therapeutic molecules across the blood-brain barrier safely and effectively,” said senior researcher Dr Eric Nestler.