Nose-to-brain drug delivery for the treatment of CNS disease: New development and strategies

Int Rev Neurobiol. 2023:171:255-297. doi: 10.1016/bs.irn.2023.05.014. Epub 2023 Jun 21.

Abstract

Delivering drugs to the brain has always been a challenging task due to the restrictive properties of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Intranasal delivery is therefore emerging as an efficient method of administration, making it easy to self-administration and thus provides a non-invasive and painless alternative to oral and parenteral administration for delivering therapeutics to the central nervous system (CNS). Recently, drug formulations have been developed to further enhance this nose-to-brain transport, primarily using nanoparticles (NPs). Therefore, the purposes of this review are to highlight and describe the anatomical basis of nasal-brain pathway and provide an overview of drug formulations and current drugs for intranasal administration in CNS disease.

Keywords: Blood-brain barrier; Intranasal administration; Nanoparticles; Nose-to-brain delivery.

Publication types

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

MeSH terms

  • Administration, Intranasal
  • Blood-Brain Barrier / metabolism
  • Brain / metabolism
  • Central Nervous System Diseases* / drug therapy
  • Drug Delivery Systems / methods
  • Humans
  • Nasal Mucosa* / metabolism