A team of researchers are currently working to develop nanocarriers that deliver drugs across the blood brain barrier.
This barrier is created by the body in order to protect the brain from pathogens.
If successful, these nanocarriers could lead to treatments for brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ischemic stroke, seizures and epilepsy.
In order to describe the process the nanocarriers will take, Rizia Bardhan, who is part of the research team, covers her fist with her other hand.
The fist represents a nanocarrier filled with medicine, whilst the covering hand represents a cell working out whether it should take the nanocarrier across its protective membrane into its interior.
This type of cellular uptake is dependant on two factors, the first being the nanoparticle’s surface properties must be acceptable to the cell.
The nanocarrier must have the right ligands, or binders, that will identify the particle as friendly and lock it on to the receiving cell.
The second factor, is the particle must be the right stiffness in order to be accepted by the cell.
On stiffness, Bardhan says: “If its too soft, it will get stuck in the membrane.
“If it is too hard some immune cells will uptake the nanoparticle and clear it out of the cell.”
Bardhan, along with fellow collaborators have came up with a new way of creating nanocarriers for drug delivery.
The technology behind these nanocarriers features a soft, fat-like, liposome interior (clinically approved drug carrier) which is surrounded by a hard shell of gold nanoparticles.
On their approach to creating the nanocarriers, Bardhan says: “We’re bringing soft and hard together, which is why I call them hybrid nanocarriers.”
Bardhan also highlights that the particles that will be no more than 100 billionths of a metre in diameter.
“This hard and soft provides a broad range of mechanical properties to achieve high cellular uptake.”
Unconventional approach
A major goal of this study is to determine whether which of the nanocarrier’s mechanical and molecular properties can be manipulated and tuned to efficiently cross the blood brain barrier.
The nanocarriers will be further tuned by the researchers by the use of low-level infrared lasers, commonly used by dermatologists.
This will heat the nanocarriers to fever temperatures, which breaks their membranes, thus releasing their medicine payloads to targeted cells.
The researchers believe this will advance “drug delivery in difficult to treat disorders of the brain.”
The researchers also note that their hybrid, tuned and targeted approach is creating “unconventional nanocarriers.”
Bardhan explains that most researchers “usually work at the extremes” and that they are “working with nanoparticles that are either very hard of very soft.”
Thus meaning that “the region between is unexplored.”