Improving drug delivery to the brain and glioblastoma treatment using temperature.

ended

Therapeutic drug delivery to the brain remains an unsolved challenge that limits the treatment of neurological and brain diseases, such as Glioblastoma, Parkinson and stroke. The main limitation is in the ability of the therapeutic drugs to cross the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB). To overcome this limitation, scientists present hyperthermia as an approach to overcome this limitation. Although this approach show promising results, the studies were not focused on understanding and combining the temperature raise during the BBB opening. Thus, the possibility of using this temperature rise to both improve the BBB opening performance and to exploit it to treat brain diseases is not used. For the aforementioned to be actualized, this project will bring the latest advances in intracellular temperature and nano-thermometry to a deeper understanding of the role of temperature in the BBB opening and its possible utilization in the treatment of brain diseases, such as glioblastoma. Thus, with the effort of the host organization (world leader in develop of nanomedicine platforms) and the experienced researcher (expert in nano-thermometry), two important objectives will be achieved under this Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship: (1) detailed studies and understanding of both the intracellular temperature and extracellular temperature needed for the BBB opening and (2) design and synthesis of the nano-complex for simultaneously BBB opening and the release “in real time and on demand” of therapeutic drugs for glioblastoma treatment in vivo. The outcome of this proposal will represent an important step forward in the field of brain drug delivery, that will not only improve the applications of nanotechnology in glioblastoma treatment, but will also facilitate the overcoming of the actual limitations in the treatment of different brain diseases.