Neurotechnology has undoubtedly gained attention in the recent times with the pace of digital evolution. One of the recent break through has been the delivery of therapeutic drugs to the human brain to prevent/manage neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The biggest challenge would be the drug to go through the human firewall aka BBB aka Blood Brain Barrier. A recent research has highlighted the use of nanotechnology and bioengineering to design drug delivery agents or therapeutic agents to carry the medication to the brain through the BBB.
The study has been published by Science Advances with the independent delivery of siRNA or small interfering RNA in traumatic brain injury or TBI. The researchers have gone beyond the horizons to explore this technology of drug delivery. The backdrop of the research is that Small interfering RNA (siRNA)–based therapeutics can mitigate the long-term sequel of traumatic brain injury (TBI) but suffer from poor permeability across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The permeability factor has been a big problem in delivering drugs across the brain and one of the potential challenges involves administration of the patient while the BBB is transiently breached after injury. The researchers Wen Li, Jianhua Qiu, Xiang-Ling Li,Sezin Aday,,, Jingdong Zhang , Grace Conley, Jun Xu ,John Joseph , Haoyue Lan,Robert Langer, Rebekah Mannix, Jeffrey M. Karp and Nitin Joshiwent have gone on to achieve the independent delivery of siRNA in TBI.
The paper presents that this by combined modulation of surface chemistry and coating density on nanoparticles, maximized their active transport across BBB. Engineered nanoparticles injected within or outside the window of breached BBB in TBI mice showed threefold higher brain accumulation compared to nanoengineered PEGylated nanoparticles and 50% gene silencing. The results of the paper were highlighted around the different stages and substances of the coating used till the uptake of the therapeutic agent.
This analysis led some findings that included the following:
- Surface coating affects the uptake of NPs by neural cells and gene silencing efficiency, Penetration of NPs across intact BBB depends on surface coating
- Surface coating density affects cellular uptake of NPs, gene silencing efficiency, and penetration of NPs across intact BBB
- PS 80 (H)-NPs exhibit BBB pathophysiology–independent delivery of siRNA in a mouse model of TBI
- Tau siRNA–loaded PS 80 (H)-NPs suppress tau expression in murine primary neuronal cells
- Tau siRNA–loaded PS 80 (H)-NPs silence tau expression during early and late injury phases with no systemic toxicity
This is one of the very few research that has made a big break through in drug designing. This technology will aid in the independent delivery of potential therapeutic drugs and some of the diseases can be controlled much more efficiently or even possibly be cured to a great extent. Every study has potential limitations as these limitations lead to more questions or more hypotheses to be created. The path of this research has led to understanding of the use of bio-engineering and nanotechnology in the brain space and all these technologies will be controlled through some sort of technology
The involvement of neurosecurity will eventually play a very pivotal role at a point, with more sophisticated technology, as the medication will pretty much be done like an every day activity through a standard communication protocol like Bluetooth and wireless. The impending growth behind this field of research across the brain and different disciplines is definitely captivatingand just keeps getting interesting every day.
The Art Of Cyber-Space 