Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and stroke are the most common CNS diseases, all characterized by progressive cellular dysfunction and death in specific areas of the nervous system. Therapeutic development for these diseases has lagged behind other disease areas due to difficulties in early diagnosis, long disease courses and drug delivery challenges, not least due to the blood-brain barrier. Over recent decades, nanotechnology has been explored as a potential tool for the diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of CNS diseases. In this review, we describe the application of nanotechnology to common CNS diseases, highlighting disease pathogenesis and the underlying mechanisms and promising functional outcomes that make nanomaterials ideal candidates for early diagnosis and therapy. Moreover, we discuss the limitations of nanotechnology, and possible solutions.
Keywords: blood–brain barrier; nanotechnology; neurodegenerative disease; neuroinflammation; theranostics.