title: [Nanoparticles for brain delivery of drugs or contrast agents. Application to             Alzheimer's disease].
abstract: The treatment and the diagnosis of brain diseases like Alzheimer's are nowadays a real           challenge. In fact the brain delivery of drugs or contrast agents is very difficult due to           the low permeability of the blood brain barrier (BBB) which is situated in brain           capillaries and assures a high protection of the brain against exogenous molecules or           particles. Among the different strategies that have been proposed to increase the passage           of drugs through the barrier, a non-invasive one is based on the use of colloidal carriers           called nanoparticles. These nanometric objects chosen for their biocompatibility and           biodegradation exhibit several fates and distributions according to their composition and           structures, defining the three generations of nanoparticles described up to now. The           application of nanoparticles to the treatment and diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease is           actually investigated in a European project. Recent studies reveal that more than 3           million people in Europe are afflicted with Alzheimer's disease. New treatments are           urgently needed, as are diagnostic tests that can detect the disease earlier. The           strategies developed in this project are based on the design of new carriers able to pass           through the BBB and to interact with β-amyloid peptide in order to (1)           detect already formed brain plaques, aiming to diagnose the disease and (2) avoid peptide           aggregation which is toxic for neurons, for the purpose of discovering a new therapeutic           approach for Alzheimer's disease.
authors.affiliation: Universite Paris-Sud, Institut Galien Paris Sud, Chatenay-Malabry Cedex, France. karine.andrieux@u-psud.fr
authors.forename: Karine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Andrieux
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Couvreur
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy*; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D001812:Blood-Brain Barrier / Q000378:metabolism; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy*; D004337:Drug Carriers; D005060:Europe; D006801:Humans; D053758:Nanoparticles
chemical_list: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D004337:Drug Carriers