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Review
. 2022 Feb 6;23(3):1851.
doi: 10.3390/ijms23031851.

A Review of the Common Neurodegenerative Disorders: Current Therapeutic Approaches and the Potential Role of Nanotherapeutics

Affiliations
Review

A Review of the Common Neurodegenerative Disorders: Current Therapeutic Approaches and the Potential Role of Nanotherapeutics

Richard N L Lamptey et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Neurodegenerative disorders are primarily characterized by neuron loss. The most common neurodegenerative disorders include Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Although there are several medicines currently approved for managing neurodegenerative disorders, a large majority of them only help with associated symptoms. This lack of pathogenesis-targeting therapies is primarily due to the restrictive effects of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which keeps close to 99% of all "foreign substances" out of the brain. Since their discovery, nanoparticles have been successfully used for targeted delivery into many organs, including the brain. This review briefly describes the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and their current management approaches. We then highlight the major challenges of brain-drug delivery, followed by the role of nanotherapeutics for the diagnosis and treatment of various neurological disorders.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Parkinson’s disease; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; blood–brain barrier; nanoparticle; neurodegenerative disorder; neurogenesis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Path to cognitive decline in neurodegeneration. Amyloid-beta (Aβ) monomers clump together to form oligomers of variant structures. Subsequently, the oligomers aggregate to form Aβ fibers, which misarrange to form Aβ plaques. Plaque formation induces an inflammatory response which includes the formation of tau aggregates leading to the conversion of healthy neurons to diseased neurons. The presence of more diseased neurons triggers another inflammatory response leading to more neuron loss and a subsequent loss in brain function as well as cognitive decline.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Types of nanoparticles most commonly used for the management of neurodegenerative disorders. SLN—solid lipid nanoparticle; AuNP—gold nanoparticle, AgNP—silver nanoparticle, CeO2 NP—cerium oxide nanoparticle.
Figure 3
Figure 3
In vivo vgf transfection in brain and other major organs in mice. Data shown as mean ± SD of 6 animals per group. ~, |, @, #, *, –, +, and “ show statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) from control, naked DNA, plain, Pen, MAN, CGN, RVG9R and RDP liposomes, respectively. Source: Reprinted from Arora, S.; Singh, J. In vitro and in vivo optimization of liposomal nanoparticles based brain targeted vgf gene therapy. International Journal of Pharmaceutics 2021, 608, 121095 [122]. With permission from Elsevier.

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