Oct 22, 2015, 6:42am EDT
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| Senior author Dr. Benjamin S. Bleier, of the department of otolaryngology at Mass. Eye… |
The findings, published in
Neurosurgery, have created a buzz among scientists and researchers who have
struggled to deliver necessary drugs to the brain for decades. The brain is
equipped with what is known as the blood-brain barrier, a filtering mechanism
of the capillaries that carries blood to the brain, but protects the brain from
foreign substances.
Yet that protective mechanism
creates a barrier for up to 98 percent of promising drugs that could be used to
treat neurological conditions and other problems in the central nervous system.
Boston scientists have found a
way around the issue through a technique known as nasal mucosal grafting.
“We are developing a platform
that may eventually be used to deliver a variety of drugs to the brain,” said
senior author Dr. Benjamin Bleier, of the department of otolaryngology at Mass.
Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School, in a release. “Although we are
currently looking at neurodegenerative disease, there is potential for the
technology to be expanded to psychiatric diseases, chronic pain, seizure disorders
and many other conditions affecting the brain and nervous system down the
road.”
In research funded by The Michael
J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, researchers have discovered that
they can remove some layers of the blood-brain barrier through endoscopic skull
base surgery, a minimally invasive procedure that involves small incisions
being made through natural body openings, such as the nose.
A nasal mucosal graft, used from nearby nasal lining, is then
placed over the
opening to permanently rebuild the hole.
While this technique is normally
used by ear, nose and throat specialists for other procedures involving
endoscopic skull-based surgery, such as the removal of brain tumors,
researchers discovered that the mucosa membrane is 1,000 times more permeable
than the blood-brain barrier.
According to the local research
team, surgeons can create a “screen door” of sorts that still protects the
brain, but allows for drugs to pass into the brain and central nervous system.
Using this technique, researchers were able to deliver a therapeutic protein —
which has shown to delay and even reverse progression of Parkinson’s in
pre-clinical models — into the brains of mice.
Behavioral and histological data
showed that the method was just as effective as directly injecting the drug
into the brain, minus the obvious trauma and high complication rates.
“Brain diseases are notoriously
difficult to treat due to the natural protections the body builds against
intrusion,” said Dr. Jamie Eberling, senior associate director of the Michael
J. Fox Foundation research programs. “Dr. Bleier’s group has identified a
potential avenue to pass that barrier, and we look forward to the next stage of
research to further test its utility in people with Parkinson’s disease.”
http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/health-care/2015/10/a-new-way-to-treat-parkinsons-disease-may-be.html
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