Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• McCall, Rebecca L
• Cacaccio, Joseph
• Wrabel, Eileen
• Schwartz, Mary E
• Coleman, Timothy P
• Sirianni, Rachael W

Titel

Pathogen-inspired drug delivery to the central nervous system

Ist Teil von

• Tissue barriers, 2014-08, Vol.2 (4), p.e944449-e944449

Ort / Verlag

United States: Taylor & Francis

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• For as long as the human blood-brain barrier (BBB) has been evolving to exclude bloodborne agents from the central nervous system (CNS), pathogens have adopted a multitude of strategies to bypass it. Some pathogens, notably viruses and certain bacteria, enter the CNS in whole form, achieving direct physical passage through endothelial or neuronal cells to infect the brain. Other pathogens, including bacteria and multicellular eukaryotic organisms, secrete toxins that preferentially interact with specific cell types to exert a broad range of biological effects on peripheral and central neurons. In this review, we will discuss the directed mechanisms that viruses, bacteria, and the toxins secreted by higher order organisms use to enter the CNS. Our goal is to identify ligand-mediated strategies that could be used to improve the brain-specific delivery of engineered nanocarriers, including polymers, lipids, biologically sourced materials, and imaging agents.