Potential Use of Nanomedicine for the Anti-inflammatory Treatment of Neurodegenerative Diseases

Abstract

Neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer´s and Parkinson´s disease, are a group of disorders that have in common their increasingly high prevalence along with the shortage of effective treatments. In addition, the scientific community faces the challenge of getting the drugs used in these treatments to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and reach the brain in sufficient concentration to be able to exert its effect. Hence, researchers across multiple disciplines are working together in order to improve the ability of therapeutics to penetrate the BBB. In this sense, the use of nanomedicine, nanoscale structures for drug delivery, exhibits a really high therapeutic potential in the field of neurodegenerative diseases therapy. Since there is new evidence that neuroinflammation produced by reactive microglia contributes to the activation and pathogenesis of neurological disorders, many investigations focus on the identification of new targets whose inhibition can reduce, totally or partially, microglial activation. This review analyzes a wide variety of compounds as possible candidates to achieve this target, from compounds with a natural origin to anti-diabetics, antidepressants, antibiotics and hormones. We also discuss the different strategies to enhance the capacity of these compounds to cross the BBB. Although this review focuses on PLGA nanoparticles as one of the most versatile drug delivery nanosystems, we also describe other strategies, such as direct intranasal administration (nose-tobrain), novel viral vectors and novel implanted catheters.

Multidrug Resistance in Cancer Cells: Focus on a Possible Strategy Plan to Address Colon Carcinoma Cells

“…Furthermore, flavonoids are well known for their immunomodulatory, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties, among others. These findings support our hypothesis that flavonoids can be used to enhance the activity of first-line therapy as an antiproliferative agent [ 72 ]. Curcumin and 5-FU together have the potential to recover the potency and efficacy of cancer treatment.…”

Phenolic Compounds Characteristic of the Mediterranean Diet in Mitigating Microglia-Mediated Neuroinflammation

“…The mechanisms by which polyphenols are able to prevent and counteract neurodegenerative diseases include interfering with amyloid aggregation, reducing oxidative stress and regulating signaling pathways and cytokines expression, with a marked effect on reducing inflammation ( Ramassamy, 2006 ; Essa et al, 2012 ; Martínez-Huélamo et al, 2017 ; Sarubbo et al, 2017 ). In fact, inflammatory markers, many of them derived from activated microglia, are widely present in neurodegenerative diseases and polyphenols have been proposed as active agents having anti-inflammatory effects on microglia ( Sundaram and Gowtham, 2012 ; Peña-Altamira et al, 2017 ; Cayero-Otero et al, 2018 ). Despite the broad evidence supported by both in vitro and in vivo studies, it is worth highlighting that we should be cautious when extrapolating the findings based on cell culture or animal research to the human disease.…”

Duzhong Fang Attenuates the POMC-Derived Neuroinflammation in Parkinsonian Mice

“…The chromatogram of DZF was obtained using the process described in "Method 2.2.". The main compounds were detected and identified, including Caffeic acid (1), 5-Hydroxymethyl furaldehyde (2), Aucubin (3), Geniposidic acid (4), Dendrobiumane B (5), 3-Caffeoylquinic acid (6), 10-Gingerdione ( 7), (+)-Cycloolivil or (-)-Olivil (8ʹ,8),6-Shogaol (9), Cinnamic acid (10), 10-Gingerol (11), Dendromoniliside A (12), Genipin (13), Nobilonine (14), Dendramine (15), 6-Gingerol (16), Dendrobiumane A (17), 8-Gingerol (18), and Hexadecanoic acid (19). The chemical structures of these compounds are shown in Figure 2.…”

“…And many traditional Chinese medicines have inhibitory effects on inflammation in neurodegenerative diseases and even neuroinflammation caused by microglia. [14][15][16] In traditional Chinese medicine theory, PD is considered to be "fibrillation syndrome", which treatment is based on nourishing yin and tonifying yang. "Yin and Yang" theory, a fundamental concept of TCM, based on the different attributes of body composition.…”