The blood-brain barrier is a gatekeeping system of cells that filters what enters and exits the brain. It allows nutrients to pass through while preventing toxins from reaching the brain. It works well—so well it can block medications from getting through.
After a person with Parkinson's disease takes Levodopa, the chemicals it produces can supply the brain with dopamine. However, many other madications scientists have experimented with will not cross the blood-brain barrier.
“A big part of our work is raising the awareness about the blood-brain barrier as an intimate part of the disease process,” said William A. Banks, M.D., of Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
Banks and other members of a multi-university research team published an article in the journal Lancet Neurology last month that discussed the difficulty in creating medications that can get beyond the blood brain barrier and treat diseases that affect the brain.
"You can’t get drugs into the brain or understand brain disease without understanding the blood-brain barrier, which is among our most significant recommendations for future research," Banks said.
The blood-brain barrier is woefully misunderstood, Banks said.
"The general theme of our review article is the blood-brain barrier is not a brick wall but a regulating interface between the brain and the rest of the body," Banks said. "Look at the brain as an island, where all raw materials have to be imported. The blood-brain barrier is the shipping and communications system that connects the island (the brain) to the rest of the world (the body)."
Learning more about the secrets of the blood-brain barrier system is critical to understanding how to deliver helpful chemicals, and blocking delivering unhelpful ones.
Source:
St. Louis University new release
