Researchers
have discovered a potentially new approach to deliver therapeutics more
effectively to the brain.
The findings,
done on mice, showed that the research could have implications for the
treatment of a wide range of diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and brain cancer.
"Improving
the delivery of drugs to the central nervous system is a considerable clinical
challenge," said lead author Maiken Nedergaard from
the University of Rochester Medical
Center (URMC) in the US.
"The
findings of this study demonstrate that the brain's waste removal system could
be harnessed to transport drugs quickly and efficiently into the brain,"
Nedergaard added.
The study taps
into the power of the glymphatic system, the brain's unique process of removing
waste that was first discovered by Nedergaard in 2012.
It consists of a
plumbing system that piggybacks on the brain's blood vessels and pumps cerebral
spinal fluid (CSF) through the brain's tissue, flushing away waste.
In the study,
published in the journal JCI Insight, the researchers took advantage of the
mechanics of the glymphatic system to deliver drugs deep into the brain.
The team
administered antibodies directly
into CSF. They then injected the animals with hypertonic saline, a treatment
frequently used to reduce intracranial pressure on patients with traumatic brain injury.
The saline
triggers an ion imbalance which pulls CSF out of the brain. When this occurs,
new CSF delivered by the glymphatic system flows in to take its place, carrying
the antibodies with
it into brain tissue, the team said.
The researchers
developed a new imaging system
by customising a macroscope to non-invasively observe the proliferation of
the antibodies into
the brains of the animals.
