Scientists have broken the blood-brain barrier
Canadian researchers at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center have developed a breakthrough method of delivering drugs to the central nervous system. What is it about?
The method seems brilliant in its simplicity. Gas-filled miniature bubbles are injected into the patient’s bloodstream. They also reach the blood vessels of the brain along with the flow of blood. Then, a head emitting ultrasound waves of such frequency and strength is placed on the patient’s head that the gas bubbles vibrated by them behave like microscopic hammer drills and break through the blood-brain barrier, creating holes through which the brain can a drug administered concurrently intravenously, e.g. a chemotherapeutic agent. After a short time, the holes close by themselves and the blood-brain barrier regains its normal tightness.
Scientists from Toronto used an innovative method in a 56-year-old patient suffering from brain tumors for 8 years (her condition has recently deteriorated – the tumor has started to grow), but in the future it will most likely be used also in patients with other diseases of the central nervous system , including epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease or in situations where an infection has occurred within the brain, and an antibiotic effective against a given pathogen does not cross the blood-brain barrier.
However, we will have to wait a little longer for such a wide application of the method. So far, it is not certain that the method is completely safe, in particular, it is not known whether even a short-term opening of the blood-brain barrier will lead to adverse effects unknown at this stage. More clinical trials are needed in more patients. A few more patients (6 to 10 people) with brain tumors will undergo experimental treatment at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in the near future.
Based on: BBC News