Blood brain barrier: Cracking the hard nut

Abstract

T increase in incidence of brain disease, including cancer is alarming. In the Middle East, the incidence of primary brain cancer and secondary brain metastases originating mainly from breast, lung and/or ovarian cancer is on the rise because of increasing prevalence of these types of cancer. On the other hand, noninvasive drug therapy is hampered by poor access of most drugs to the brain due to the insurmountable blood–brain barrier (BBB). Nanotechnology holds great promise for a non-invasive therapy of severe brain diseases. Indeed, the literature reports provided evidence for enhanced drug transport across the BBB using nanocarriers, especially surface-modified polymeric nanoparticles (NPs).