Biomedicines (May 2020)

Non-Invasive Delivery of Therapeutics into the Brain: The Potential of Aptamers for Targeted Delivery

  • Bakhtiar Bukari,
  • Rasika M. Samarasinghe,
  • Jinjutha Noibanchong,
  • Sarah L. Shigdar

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines8050120
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 5
p. 120

Abstract

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The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a highly specialised network of blood vessels that effectively separates the brain environment from the circulatory system. While there are benefits, in terms of keeping pathogens from entering the brain, the BBB also complicates treatments of brain pathologies by preventing efficient delivery of macromolecular drugs to diseased brain tissue. Although current non-invasive strategies of therapeutics delivery into the brain, such as focused ultrasound and nanoparticle-mediated delivery have shown various levels of successes, they still come with risks and limitations. This review discusses the current approaches of therapeutic delivery into the brain, with a specific focus on non-invasive methods. It also discusses the potential for aptamers as alternative delivery systems and several reported aptamers with promising preliminary results.

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