American Chemical Society: Trans-Blood Brain Barrier Delivery of Dopamine Loaded Nanoparticles Reverses Functional Deficits in Parkinsonian Rats. As baby boomers age, the number of people diagnosed with Parkinson's
disease is expected to increase. Patients who develop this disease
usually start experiencing symptoms around age 60 or older. Currently,
there’s no cure, but scientists are reporting a novel approach that
reversed Parkinson's-like symptoms in rats. Their results, published in
the journal ACS Nano, could one day lead to a new therapy for human patients.
Rajnish Kumar Chaturvedi, Kavita Seth, Kailash Chand Gupta and
colleagues from the CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research note
that among other issues, people with Parkinson's lack dopamine in the
brain. Dopamine is a chemical messenger that helps nerve cells
communicate with each other and is involved in normal body movements.
Reduced levels cause the shaking and mobility problems associated with
Parkinson's. Symptoms can be relieved in animal models of the disease by
infusing the compound into their brains. But researchers haven't yet
figured out how to safely deliver dopamine directly to the human brain,
which is protected by something called the blood-brain barrier that
keeps out pathogens, as well as many medicines. Chaturvedi and Gupta's
team wanted to find a way to overcome this challenge.
The researchers packaged dopamine in biodegradable nanoparticles that
have been used to deliver other therapeutic drugs to the brain. The
resulting nanoparticles successfully crossed the blood-brain barrier in
rats, released its dopamine payload over several days and reversed the
rodents' movement problems without causing side effects.
The authors acknowledge funding from the Indian Department of Science and Technology as Woman Scientist and Ramanna Fellow Grant, and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (India).