Multidisciplinary Review Team, Including BITS Pilani Researcher, Calls for Better Drug Delivery Strategies for the Aging Brain

Review highlights why getting medicines into the brain is only the first step

Goa Khabar: Researchers from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani) and institutions in Taiwan have contributed to a multi-institutional review that highlights an important challenge in treating brain diseases. Getting a medicine past the blood-brain barrier is not enough to ensure that it reaches the right place and works effectively in an aging brain.

Published in the peer-reviewed journal Ageing Research Reviews, the review explains how the aging brain changes over time, affecting blood flow, the movement of fluids, waste removal, and immune activity. These changes can influence how tiny drug-carrying particles, known as nanoparticles, move through the brain, where they stay, and how effectively they release medicines.

The review was undertaken by Ruei-Dun Teng, Jui-Ming Sun, Ting-Lin Yen, Cheng-Ta Hsieh, and Chih-Hao Yang from Taipei Medical University and affiliated institutions in Taiwan, with Dr. Rajeev Taliyan, Neuropsychopharmacology Division, Department of Pharmacy, BITS Pilani, India, as a collaborating author.

Dr. Rajeev Taliyan, Neuropsychopharmacology Division, Department of Pharmacy, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus, Rajasthan, India, said, “Crossing the blood-brain barrier is only the first step in delivering medicines to the brain. As we age, the brain undergoes several changes that can affect how a medicine reaches its target and how well it works. Understanding these changes can help us develop better and more precise treatments for brain disorders.”

The review points out that the aging brain is very different from the young, healthy brain that is often used to test new drug-delivery systems. As people age, blood vessels can become less flexible, the brain’s natural waste-clearance system can become less efficient, and changes in the immune system can affect how nanoparticles behave. As a result, a drug-delivery system that works well in a young brain may not work in the same way in an older brain.

To overcome these challenges, the authors suggest developing drug-delivery systems that can respond to the changing conditions inside an aging brain. These systems may be developed to deliver drugs in response to specific modifications identified as a function of age and disease. The review also mentions that medicines can be given at an appropriate time of the day and that information about the patient can be used to decide on the most appropriate treatment.

The authors also highlight the importance of testing these drug delivery systems in more advanced and realistic biological systems before they are applied to patients. Knowing how the nanoparticles behave in the blood and brain of older individuals may help make the nanoparticles safer and more effective.

The review calls for a change in how brain-targeted medicines are developed. Instead of focusing only on whether a medicine can cross the blood-brain barrier, researchers should also understand what happens to it after it enters the brain. This approach could help in developing safer and more effective treatments for age-related brain conditions, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

DOI Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1568163726002734