BBB modulation technologies are advancing rapidly and offer real potential to improve delivery of therapeutics in AD patients. Hyperosmotic method has been successfully used to deliver anticancer drugs to treat brain tumor patients and can be used for AD. Recently, focused ultrasound (FUS) has been used to disrupt the BBB at a targeted brain region to enhance paracellular permeation of drug molecules to the brain. Finally, drug permeation through the BBB paracellular pathway can also be enhanced by modulating the protein-protein interactions in the intercellular junctions using BBB modulators (BBBMs). This review covers the mechanisms, advantages, and limitations of these methods as well as recent studies to enhance therapeutic agents for AD and other brain diseases.
Haghighi et al. (Wed,) studied this question.