Press Releases
BRNI Patents New Method for Crossing Blood-Brain Barrier
Patent issued today for new drug delivery system
May 22, 2007
Morgantown, W.Va. -- Researchers at the Blanchette Rockefeller
Neurosciences Institute have patented a new way of safely transporting
medicine across the blood-brain barrier.
The blood-brain barrier is a group of cells that line the brain's blood
vessels, protecting vital brain structures from foreign substances. The
barrier has posed enormous difficulties for researchers who want to
deliver therapeutic drugs to the brain to treat tumors, infections and
degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
The new method takes advantage of a process called transcytosis, which a
cell normally uses to transport necessary molecules, such as
cholesterol, into the brain. In early tests, BRNI scientists were able
to use the new way to deliver a variety of test substances into the
brains of rats with no ill effects.
Researchers are hopeful that this will some day be helpful to patients,
according to Daniel Alkon, M.D., scientific director of BRNI.
"This may lead to a powerful new tool that clinicians can use to treat
brain diseases," Dr. Alkon said. "The blood-brain barrier provides
effective protection to the brain against circulating toxins, bacteria
and other harmful substances. But we need to have an effective means of
delivering drugs across the barrier if we are going to offer patients
better treatment options."
The new method patented by BRNI is based primarily of low-density
lipoproteins (LDLs), a class of molecules that naturally occur in the
blood. To help the LDL particles reach their target, BRNI researchers
have coated the particles with a natural protein known as apolipoprotein
E, which helps direct the particles to receptors on the blood-brain
barrier cells. These receptors then assist the particle, which can
contain any drug in its central lipid core, across the barrier into the
brain.
According to Alkon, previous attempts to develop carriers relied on
viruses and artificial polymers, which could penetrate the barrier, but
posed high levels of risk. Earlier carriers, like liposomes, were
unstable, or tended to rid their cargo in unwanted places - like the
liver or blood vessel linings. BRNI's system prevents lipoproteins from
abandoning their cargo until reaching the target destination, ensuring
that the particles are stable in the bloodstream.
U.S. patent number 7,220,833, "Artificial Low-Density Lipoprotein
Carriers for Transport of Substances Across the Blood-Brain Barrier,"
was issued to BRNI for this development today, May 22.
BRNI is a non-profit research institute dedicated to study of human
memory. Its primary mission is to accelerate neurological discoveries
from the lab, including diagnostic tools and treatments, directly to
patients who are suffering from neurological diseases such as
Alzheimer's. U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia founded the
institute in memory of his mother, who died of Alzheimer's disease.
A new, $30 million BRNI facility is under construction at West Virginia
University.