Strategies of Engineering Nanoparticles for Treating Neurodegenerative Disorders

Neurodegenerative disorders (NDs) are typically referred to Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's diseases, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and prion disease. These are commonly debilitating and, unfortunately, have few therapeutic options.

In this review, we describe some emerging advances in nanoengineering strategies for the treatment of NDs. One of the main difficulties in fighting against NDs is to overcome the shielding of blood-brain barrier (BBB), which greatly limits the penetration of various therapeutic drugs, which sometimes leads to severe side effects. Nanotechnology, by engineering materials of a size scale usually within 1-100 nm, fortunately offers an alternative approach for novel, promising and innovative solutions. Nanoparticles are capable of not only penetrating the BBB but also releasing active ingredients at a specific site due to its surface functionalization. Therefore, nanoengineered delivery systems potentially facilitate the targeted delivery of neuronal therapeutic drugs and genes to the central nervous system. Furthermore, recently developed nanomaterials are considered as therapeutic agents themselves since they exhibit important roles in promoting the protection of healthy neurons or the regeneration of neurons to repair damaged tissues.

There have been a variety of innovative approaches to designing therapeutic nanoparticles for NDs, and each has been associated with certain pros and cons.