The Application of Nanotechnology for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Brain Diseases and Disorders

Abstract

Brain is by far the most complex organ in the body. It is involved in the regulation of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional activities. The organ is also a target for many diseases and disorders ranging from injuries to cancers and neurodegenerative diseases. Brain diseases are the main causes of disability and one of the leading causes of deaths. Several drugs that have shown potential in improving brain structure and functioning in animal models face many challenges including the delivery, specificity, and toxicity. For many years, researchers have been facing challenge of developing drugs that can cross the physical (blood–brain barrier), electrical, and chemical barriers of the brain and target the desired region with few adverse events. In recent years, nanotechnology emerged as an important technique for modifying and manipulating different objects at the molecular level to obtain desired features. The technique has proven to be useful in diagnosis as well as treatments of brain diseases and disorders by facilitating the delivery of drugs and improving their efficacy. As the subject is still hot, and new research findings are emerging, it is clear that nanotechnology could upgrade health care systems by providing easy and highly efficient diagnostic and treatment methods. In this review, we will focus on the application of nanotechnology in the diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases and disorders by illuminating the potential of nanoparticles.

The Role of Graphene Oxide Nanocarriers in Treating Gliomas

“…For intracranial tumors, one of the common obstacles is delivery of chemotherapy drugs to the tumor site owing to the presence of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) (99). GO can penetrate the BBB, and increase drug accumulation through EPR in gliomas (46,47,(100)(101)(102). Increasing systemic circulation time of GO with high plasma concentration decreases reticuloendothelial system (RES) clearance and reduces drug accumulation in the normal organs to reduce toxicity and to enhance the EPR effect (103).…”

A Versatile Pep-CPDs Nanoprobe for Rapid Detection of mTBI Biomarker in Clinical Instances and Safe Fluorescence Imaging In Vivo for Improved Weight-Drop Mouse Model

“…This experiment further demonstrated the usefulness of protein S100-β as a biomarker in mTBI patients. Accordingly, this novel method based on pep-CPDs offers many benefits in terms of sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and practicability, having advantages over the ELISA and other traditional detection methods for identifying mTBI in forensic and clinical laboratory diagnostics, which will likely become one of the most optimum candidates for rapid and safe detection methods for mTBI patients (Li et al, 2020;Rickard et al, 2020;Krausz et al, 2021;Ngowi et al, 2021).…”

Impact of nanoparticles on amyloid β-induced Alzheimer’s disease, tuberculosis, leprosy and cancer: a systematic review

“…Extensive research has been carried out worldwide to understand the therapeutic value of inorganic-based nanoparticles as anti-fungal, anti-viral and anti-bacterial agents [ 22 , 23 ]. These types of nanoparticles are also potential candidates for the effective treatment of various neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, infectious diseases (like tuberculosis and leprosy) and cancer [ 20 , 21 , 24 , 25 ]. Organic-based nanoparticles (liposomes, micelles and polymer-based nanoparticles) also have many therapeutic applications.…”