Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Sep;17(3):806-812.
doi: 10.1177/1534735418767553. Epub 2018 Apr 13.

The Role and Mechanism of Borneol to Open the Blood-Brain Barrier

Tao Wu  1 , Aiqin Zhang  2 , Hongyang Lu  2 , Qiaoyuan Cheng  3
Affiliations

The Role and Mechanism of Borneol to Open the Blood-Brain Barrier

Tao Wu et al. Integr Cancer Ther. 2018 Sep.

Abstract

Background: The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is the greatest challenge in the treatment of intracranial malignant tumors.

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the role of borneol in opening the BBB and elucidate the underlying mechanisms.

Materials and methods: Twenty Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomized into borneol group intragastrically administered with 10% borneol corn oil (2 mL/kg) and control group. After 30 minutes, 2% Evans blue (4 mL/kg) was injected. Thirty minutes later, brain tissue was analyzed using the Evans blue standard curve. Another 40 SD rats were randomized into high-, medium-, and low-dose borneol groups and a control group. Each rat in the experimental groups was intragastrically administered with 10% borneol corn oil (2 mL/kg, 1.25 mL/kg, and 0.5 mL/kg, respectively). The control group was injected with corn oil of 1.25 mL/kg. After 30 minutes, the rats were killed, and the brain tissues were collected. The expression of occludin, occludens-1, nitric oxide synthase, P-glycoprotein, and intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) was detected by immunohistochemy.

Results: The concentration of Evans blue in the borneol group was higher than in the control group ( P < .05). The mean density of ICAM-1 expression was higher in the experimental group than in the control group ( P < .05). In contrast, significant differences of positive area and total density of ICAM-1 were shown only between the high-dose group and the control group ( P < .05).

Conclusion: Borneol can open the BBB, which might be related with the increased expression of ICAM-1.

Keywords: ICAM-1; SD rats; blood-brain barrier; borneol; traditional Chinese medicine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Standard curve of Evans blue.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
The expression of occludin, ZO-1, NOS, P-gp, and ICAM-1 detected by immunochemistry. (A) Occluding, mainly located in the nucleus of glial cells and neurons. (B) ZO-1, mainly located in the cytoplasm of glial cells and neurons. (C) NOS, mainly located in the cytoplasm of neurons and vascular endothelial cells. (D) P-gp, mainly located in the cytoplasm of neurons. (E) ICAM-1, mainly located in the cytoplasm of vascular endothelial cells.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ferlay J, Shin HR, Bray F, Forman D, Mathers C, Parkin DM. Estimates of worldwide burden of cancer in 2008: GLOBOCAN 2008. Int J Cancer. 2010;127:2893-2917. - PubMed
    1. Alexandru D, Bota DA, Linskey ME. Epidemiology of central nervous system metastases. Prog Neurol Surg. 2012;25:13-29. - PubMed
    1. Bhatia SP, McGinty D, Letizia CS, Api AM. Fragrance material review on l-borneol. Food Chem Toxicol. 2008;46(suppl 11):S81-S84. - PubMed
    1. Zhang L, Han L, Qin J, Lu W, Wang J. The use of borneol as an enhancer for targeting aprotinin-conjugated PEG-PLGA nanoparticles to the brain. Pharm Res. 2013;30:2560-2572. - PubMed
    1. Xin HL, He XR, Li W, Zhou ZD, Zhang S, Wang GJ. The effect of borneol on the concentration of meropenem in rat brain and blood. J Asian Nat Prod Res. 2014;16:648-657. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources