Abstract
Disorders of the central nervous system (CNS) and tumors of the brain are challenging to treat, and they rank amongst the most common causes of death worldwide. The delivery of drugs to the brain is problematic because the blood-brain barrier (BBB) effectively arrests the transport of large molecules (including drugs) from the blood to the CNS. Nanoparticle (NP)-mediated drug delivery has received much interest as a technique to overcome this difficulty. In particular, liposome NPs are promising candidates to carry and deliver drugs across the BBB and into the CNS. Liposomes are easy to prepare, highly biodegradable, and biocompatible. Liposomes can be easily modified with various ligands to enable efficient and targeted drug delivery. Liposomes can promote increased cellular uptake of drugs and can reduce the extent to which efflux transporters can remove drugs. Liposomes can be loaded with a wide range of drugs and biologically active substances. In this review, we will summarize recent advances in research relating to liposome-based strategies to enable drug delivery across the BBB.
Keywords: Blood-brain barrier, drug targeting, dual ligand-modified liposomes, transferrin, cell-penetrating peptide, central nervous system.
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