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The Challenge
Until now, the blood-brain barrier (BBB) has hampered the development of new therapies to treat diseases of the brain and central nervous system (CNS). The BBB serves as the natural guardian of the brain, keeping foreign substances out while permitting access only to certain metabolically essential molecules, such as glucose, insulin, and growth hormone.
Conveying therapeutics to the brain has been attempted in a number of ways, with varying degrees of success. One method is to “disguise” a drug as a molecule that naturally crosses the BBB. Such attempts at modifying a known active molecule to meet the criteria (size, charge, fat-solubility) necessary to penetrate the BBB result in diminished activity of the molecule or inability to reach the target. Benzodiazepines such as Valium penetrate the BBB in this manner, but this therapeutic approach is no longer actively explored.
An ideal therapeutic approach would harness the brain’s own active transport system, and gain entry across the BBB the same way other molecules such as growth hormone or insulin are carried into the brain. Angiochem has developed a platform technology that enables the development of drugs that do exactly this.
> Learn more about Angiochem’s approach
View an animation that shows how an optimal approach for crossing the BBB recognizes the barrier is not just a barrier but an active interface which transports active substances to the brain.
View an animation to see how attempts to “disguise” a molecule in order to gain entry into the brain are approaches that are sub-optimal.
