Search Here

A research is shedding new light on the brain's complicated barrier tissue which helps protect the brain but also sometimes makes it difficult to treat diseases such as Alzheimer's. 

According to the research, in vitro blood-brain barrier, researchers can recreate the brain's transport process for the benefit of the development of new pharmaceuticals for the brain. 

Almost ninety-five percent of all tested pharmacological agents for treating brain disorders fail as they cannot cross the blood-brain barrier. Therefor it is important to find a possible method for transporting drugs past the brain's efficient outpost and fervent protector. 

The recreated complex blood-brain barrier in a laboratory model is based on cells from animals. 

"The blood-brain barrier is chemically tight because the cells contain transporter proteins which make sure that substances entering the cells are thrown straight back out into the bloodstream again. We have shown that the barrier which we have created in the laboratory contains the same bouncer proteins - and that they behave in the same way as in a 'real' brain. This is important, because the model can be used to test drive the difficult way into the brain. Complex phenomena - which we have so far only been able to study in live animals -can now be investigated in simple laboratory experiments using cultivated cells," said postdoc Hans Christian Cederberg Helms from the Department of Pharmacy in the press release.

The new research is published in the AAPS Journal.