title: Emerging Insights for Better Delivery of Chemicals and Stem Cells to the Brain.
abstract: The human central nervous system and its vascularity has evolved a complex yet useful barricade, called the blood-brain barrier. The understanding of this barrier and the transport proteins that allow a selective access across it remains fundamental in designing chemicals and molecules that could cross it and prove therapeutically beneficial. After the recent findings of the brain-lymphatic link and the movement of chemical molecules from the central nervous system into general circulation, the model of the blood-brain barrier needs to be revisited. Here the author intends to discuss the components of the blood-brain barrier, debate the novel routes of administration and delivery systems for the drugs and embryonic stem cells that could cross or bypass the blood-brain barrier in order to reach the central nervous system.
authors.affiliation: The Aga Khan University , Karachi 74800, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Abdul Mannan
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0626-216X
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Baig
mesh_terms: D001812:Blood-Brain Barrier / Q000502:physiology*; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations
keywords: Blood brain barrier; CNS drug delivery; intranasal route; neurodegenerative diseases; stem cell transplantation