Introduction and purpose: Blood-brain barrier (BBB) consists of  capillary endothelium, in which there are three types of intercellular junctions - adherent, tight and gap junctions.Efficient therapy involves delivering a therapeutic dose of drug into a specific site in the body, and maintaining this dose for adequate time afterwards. The aim of this study is to review current knowledge of new strategies in drug delivery to CNS and the effectiveness of these methods in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) treatment. This review was performed using the PubMed database. A brief description of the state of knowledge:  Methods for delivering drugs to the brain are divided into invasive and non-invasive. Invasive methods involve temporary disrupting tight intercellular junctions of the vascular endothelial cells and delivering drugs intracerebrally or intraventricularly during neurosurgical procedures. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the use of nanoparticles as drug carriers to the central nervous system via blood-brain barrier. The usage of nanoparticles implies many advantages, such as non-invasive, low cost, good biodegradability, stability, ability to carry various types of agents, selectivity and ability to control drug release. Conclusions: Limited options in treating brain located tumors, including glioblastoma multiforme, due to difficulties in drug penetration through the BBB engages scientists to search for new treatments. Crossing the BBB using invasive methods based on interruption of cell junctions show promising results, but they are associated with i.a. a high risk of uncontrolled influx of toxins to the CNS or  ion-electrolyte imbalance, which may lead to neuronal dysfunction. Invasive methods can be effective only in tumors, while treatment of diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease is impossible. Recent studies show that nanoparticles would be a great, non-invasive alternative, but they are difficult to use with relatively low permeability through undamaged BBB. In some studies using nanoparticles as nanocarriers  (EDVDox) or SYMPHONY method (combining photothermal therapy with GNS and immunotherapy of checkpoints in a mouse model) against GBM shows positive results. More research is required to confirm the effectiveness and safety of these treatments.

Introduction: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder and is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's disease. The clinical features are associated with motor symptoms: tremor, rigidity, and bradykinesia with postural instability. PD is also associated with many non-motor symptoms, and these often precede the motor symptoms by years or even decades. In general, treatment is based on usage of medicaments which increase a level of dopamine. Surgical therapy is reserved for more advanced cases. Objective: To review currently available data on PubMed about a surgical treatment of Parkinson's disease and future prospects.Abbreviated description of the state of knowledge: Surgical therapy is typically reserved for bradykinesia, rigidity and tremor in patients who no longer respond to medication in a predictable manner or who suffer medication-induced dyskinesias. Currently, the most common surgical treatment for Parkinson's disease is deep brain stimulation (DBS). Ablative procedures like radiofrequency, radiosurgery and focused ultrasound are also utilized for select tremor symptoms. We also analyzed future prospects including cells transplantation. DBS decreases a level of disability, depression and increases quality of life. It should to take under consideration in early as well as advanced PD. Conclusions: PD is still incurable, however both pharmacological and surgical treatment can stifle the progression of disease for years and increase quality of life. New methods of treatment are promising. However, the further research about possible therapy is required.

microRNA directly inhibit CD44 which suppresses prostatic cancer stem cells and its metastases. CSCs have high expression of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) including breast and colon cancer, which proclaims in favour of immunotherapy aimed on CSCs. Conclusions: Constantly growing knowledge about CSCs biology is creating new opportunities of detection, isolation and design of the therapies aimed on CSCs.

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Introduction and purpose: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a major cause of blindness in highly developed countries, with blindness frequency of 8.7%. This article is a review of the latest therapeutic options for AMD.A brief description of the state of knowledge: AMD is a multifactorial disease which etiology is not completely understood. Its development is affected by disorders at the cellular level, environmental and genetic factors. Intraocular injections of anti-VEGF agents are currently considered as the basis of AMD neovascular treatment. In the search for better and better therapeutic agents, the effects of administration of bevacizumab and ranizumab were tested. Many clinical studies confirm long-term and effective improvement in patients' vision after using the above-mentioned drugs, indicating that the initial response to treatment and the persistence of the therapeutic effect is individually variable and may be associated with genotypic difference. Another promising alternative to AMD treatment is the use of specific viral vectors that transfer substances slowing down the disease into the vitreous. Another method of gene therapy is the use of HIF transcription factors (hypoxia-induced factors), for now, the research is performed on animal models. Patients with dry AMD also have a chance for successful treatment. Examined gene therapy in dry form of AMD, including retinal surgery combined with viral vector injection, is in I/II phase study in Great Britain.  Conclusions: Looking at the number of blindness cases in highly developed countries caused by AMD, every effort should be made to introduce effective treatment that at least inhibits disease progression. Undoubtedly, more research is needed to confirm the efficacy and long-term safety of AMD.