Abstract
Passage into the brain has always been a major challenge for medicine in order to treat malfunctions of the central nervous system (CNS). The blood-brain-barrier (BBB) is a physical obstacle that controls the entrance of substances -including pharmaceuticals- into the brain. The application of nanotechnology in medicine, namely nanomedicine, is rapidly evolving and opens new prospects for brain imaging and drug delivery into the brain. Nanomedicine when combined with nuclear medicine can offer new, promising and innovative means towards this direction through radiolabeled nanoparticles.
Nanoparticles radiolabeled with β-, γ- or β+-emitters can cross the BBB and play major role in CNS imaging and/or drug delivery.
Keywords: Blood-brain-barrier, drug delivery, nanomedicine, nanoparticles, positron emission tomography (PET), radiopharmaceuticals, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT).