Current Insights of Nanocarrier-Mediated Gene Therapeutics to Treat Potential Impairment of Amyloid Beta Protein and Tau Protein in Alzheimer's Disease

Mol Neurobiol. 2024 Apr;61(4):1969-1989. doi: 10.1007/s12035-023-03671-7. Epub 2023 Oct 13.

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD), is the major type of dementia and most progressive, irreversible widespread neurodegenerative disorder affecting the elderly worldwide. The prime hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are beta-amyloid plaques (Aβ) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFT). In spite of recent advances and developments in targeting the hallmarks of AD, symptomatic medications that promise neuroprotective activity against AD are currently unable to treat degenerating brain clinically or therapeutically and show little efficacy. The extensive progress of AD therapies over time has resulted in the advent of disease-modifying medications with the potential to alleviate AD. However, due to the presence of a defensive connection between the vascular system and the neural tissues known as the blood-brain barrier (BBB), directing these medications to the site of action in the degenerating brain is the key problem. BBB acts as a highly selective semipermeable membrane that prevents any type of foreign substance from entering the microenvironment of neurons. To overcome this limitation, the revolutionary approach of nanoparticle(NP)/nanocarrier-mediated drug delivery system has marked the era with its unique property to cross, avoid, or disrupt the defensive BBB efficiently and release the modified drug at the target site of action. After comprehensive data mining, this review focuses on the detailed understanding of different types of nanoparticle(NP)/nanocarrier-mediated drug delivery system like liposomes, micelles, gold nanoparticles(NP), polymeric NPs, etc. which have promising potential in carrying the desired drug(cargo) to the location in the degenerated brain thus mitigating the Alzheimer's disease.

Keywords: Acetylcholinesterase; Amyloid beta protein; Blood–brain-barrier; Disease-modifying drugs; Nanocarrier-mediated drug delivery; Neurodegeneration; Neurofibrillary tangles.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Alzheimer Disease* / metabolism
  • Amyloid beta-Peptides / metabolism
  • Gold
  • Humans
  • Metal Nanoparticles*
  • tau Proteins

Substances

  • Amyloid beta-Peptides
  • tau Proteins
  • Gold