Diagnostic and Therapeutic Uses of Nanomaterials in the Brain

Abstract

Nanomedicine has recently emerged as an exciting tool able to improve the early diagnosis and treatment of a variety of intractable or age-related brain disorders. The most relevant properties of nanomaterials are that they can be engineered in such a way that they can cross the blood brain barrier, with the final aim of targeting specific cells and molecules and to act as vehicles for drugs. Potentially beneficial properties of nanotherapeutics derived from its unique characteristics include improved efficacy, safety, sensitivity and personalization compared to conventional medicines.In this review, recent advances in available nanostructures and nanomaterials for brain applications will be described. Then, the latest nanotechnological applications for the treatment and diagnosis of neurological disorders, mainly brain tumors and neurodegenerative diseases, will be reviewed. Recent investigations of the neurotoxicity of the nanomaterial both in vitro and in vivo will be summarized. Finally, the ongoing challenges that have to be meet if new nanomedical products are to be put on the market will be discussed and some future directions will be outlined.

Nanostructured Lipid Carriers Made of Ω-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids: In Vitro Evaluation of Emerging Nanocarriers to Treat Neurodegenerative Diseases

“…The direct or invasive techniques include surgical methods to administer drugs directly into the brain and the disruption of the BBB to open it. Meanwhile, the indirect or noninvasive techniques include nonaggressive approaches to access the brain without affecting this barrier integrity [ 11 , 12 ]. These noninvasive techniques include alternative systemic administration routes like intranasal administration [ 13 , 14 ].…”

“…NPs are highly stable 3D encapsulation systems that can be loaded with drugs and functionalized with targeting ligands or antibodies, and they can be used as nanocarriers to deliver drugs to the CNS [ 20 ]. Among other materials, natural or synthetic polymers and lipids have been employed in NP development [ 11 ].…”

Advances in Nano Neuroscience: From Nanomaterials to Nanotools

“…Nanomaterials are usually characterized by unique optical, electronic or mechanical properties, and are nowadays increasingly used in a multitude of applications such as medical (Ghosh et al, 2008; Chen et al, 2013; Oyefusi et al, 2014; Simões et al, 2015), cosmetic (Borowska and Brzóska, 2015; Patil et al, 2015), electronics (Kang et al, 2015; Zhou and Guo, 2015), machine engineering, and construction industry (Hincapié et al, 2015) or in the environmental field (Carpenter et al, 2015; Sharma et al, 2015). Due to their small size and advancements in synthesis methods, nanomaterials have many advantageous traits, such as high surface area-to-volume ratio, multi-functionality, site-specific delivery or targeting, controlled release, and versatility in enabling surface modification (Garbayo et al, 2014; Kumar et al, 2017). Therefore, nanomaterials can be used as vectors for drug delivery, as strategies for neuroprotection, as scaffolds for neuroregeneration, as modalities for neuroimaging and as devices for neurosurgery (Gilmore et al, 2008; Kumar et al, 2017).…”

Clinical advances of nanocarrier-based cancer therapy and diagnostics

“…Lack of reliable technology to scale up the production of advanced nanomaterials [90], 2) Considerable regulatory hurdles and market forces [90,91], 3) lower profit margins for imaging than for therapeutic drugs [90] …”

“…Nowadays, nanomedicine theranostics for cancer is progressing with the design of multifunctional platforms that consist of colloidal NP ranging in sizes from 10 to 1000 nm in which the diagnostic and therapeutic agents are adsorbed, conjugated, entrapped or encapsulated [91,93]. The same therapeutic agent has not the same effect on all patients with the same diagnosis.…”