Applications of Liposomal Drug Delivery Systems to Develop Neuroprotective Agents for the Treatment of Ischemic Stroke.

Applications of Liposomal Drug Delivery Systems to Develop Neuroprotective Agents for the Treatment of Ischemic Stroke. Biol Pharm Bull. 2019;42(3):319-326 Authors: Fukuta T, Ishii T, Asai T, Oku N Abstract Ischemic stroke is one of the leading causes of severe disability and death. In clinical settings, tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) for thrombolytic therapy is the only globally approved drug for the treatment of ischemic stroke. However, the proportion of patients who receive t-PA therapy is extremely limited due to its narrow therapeutic time window (TTW) and the risk of cerebral hemorrhage. Cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury is also a serious problem for patients' outcomes. Hence, the development of more effective therapies has been desired to prolong the TTW of t-PA and prevent cerebral I/R injury. For delivering drugs into the brain, the blood-brain barrier (BBB) must be overcome since it limits drug penetration into the brain, leading to insufficient therapeutic efficacy. As a distinctive pathology after an ischemic stroke, it was reported that the vascular permeability of the BBB is increased around the ischemic region. We found that nano-sized liposomes can pass through the disrupted BBB and accumulate in the I/R region, and that delivery of neuroprotective agents using a liposomal drug delivery system (DDS) is effective for the treatment of cerebral I/R injury. Moreover, we have recently demonstrated that combi...
Source: Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Authors: Tags: Biol Pharm Bull Source Type: research