Designing peptide nanoparticles for efficient brain delivery

Aroa Duro-Castano; Diana Moreira Leite; Joe Forth; Yangwei Deng; Diana Matias; Carlos Noble Jesus; Giuseppe Battaglia

doi:10.1016/j.addr.2020.10.001

Designing peptide nanoparticles for efficient brain delivery

Adv Drug Deliv Rev. 2020:160:52-77. doi: 10.1016/j.addr.2020.10.001. Epub 2020 Oct 5.

Authors

Aroa Duro-Castano¹, Diana Moreira Leite¹, Joe Forth¹, Yangwei Deng¹, Diana Matias¹, Carlos Noble Jesus¹, Giuseppe Battaglia²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, University College London, London, UK; Institute for the Physics of Living System, University College London, London, UK.
² Department of Chemistry, University College London, London, UK; Institute for the Physics of Living System, University College London, London, UK; Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST), Barcelona, Spain; Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: g.battaglia@ucl.ac.uk.

PMID: 33031897
DOI: 10.1016/j.addr.2020.10.001

Abstract

The targeted delivery of therapeutic compounds to the brain is arguably the most significant open problem in drug delivery today. Nanoparticles (NPs) based on peptides and designed using the emerging principles of molecular engineering show enormous promise in overcoming many of the barriers to brain delivery faced by NPs made of more traditional materials. However, shortcomings in our understanding of peptide self-assembly and blood-brain barrier (BBB) transport mechanisms pose significant obstacles to progress in this area. In this review, we discuss recent work in engineering peptide nanocarriers for the delivery of therapeutic compounds to the brain: from synthesis, to self-assembly, to in vivo studies, as well as discussing in detail the biological hurdles that a nanoparticle must overcome to reach the brain.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Blood–brain barrier; Drug delivery; Glioma; Parkinson’s disease; Peptides; Self-assembly; Transcytosis.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Systematic Review

MeSH terms

Administration, Intranasal
Animals
Biological Transport / physiology
Blood-Brain Barrier / metabolism*
Brain / drug effects*
Drug Delivery Systems / methods*
Drug Implants
Humans
Nanoparticles / chemistry*
Peptides / chemistry*
Recombinant Proteins / administration & dosage
Recombinant Proteins / chemistry

Substances

Drug Implants
Peptides
Recombinant Proteins