Title: Drug Delivery Across the Brain Protective Barriers

Biography:

Dr. Alain L Fymat is a medical scientist and an educator. He was educated at the University of Paris-Sorbonne and the University of California at Los Angeles. He is the current President/CEO and Professor at the International Institute of Medicine and Science with a previous appointment as Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Professor at the Weil Institute of Critical Care Medicine. He was formerly Professor of Radiology, Radiological Sciences, Radiation Medicine (Oncology), Critical Care Medicine, and Physics at several U.S. and European Universities. Previously, he was Deputy Director (Western Region) of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration (Office of Research Oversight), and Director of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging Center and for a time Acting Chair of Radiology at its Loma Linda, California Medical Center. He has extensively published (~ 350 publications including patents, books & monographs, book chapters, refereed articles) and has lectured extensively in the USA, Africa and Asia. He has been the recipient of numerous research grants from government, academia and private industry, and has consulted extensively with these entities. He is Honorable Editor of the International Journal of Cancer Prevention and Current Research and the International Journal of Nanomedicine Research. He s also Editor of the Global Journal of Nanomedicine and the Journal of Nanobiotechnology. He is a Board member of several institutions and Health Advisor of the American Heart & Stroke Association (Coachella Valley Division, California).

Abstract

There are approximately 400 known neural disorders some of which being due to a disruption or failure of the blood brain barrier (BBB) such as, for example: meningitis (an inflammation of the meninges or membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord); epilepsy (chronic or acute seizures caused by inflammation); multiple sclerosis (MS - a disease of the immune system or/and the breaking down of the BBB in a section of the brain or spinal cord); Alzheimer disease (AD - a disease in which amyloid beta contained in blood plasma enter the brain and adhere to the surface of astrocytes); possibly prion and prion-like diseases such as Parkinson disease (PD) and AD; HIV encephalitis (a precursor of HIV-associated dementia in which latent HIV can cross the BBB inside circulating monocytes in the blood stream); and systemic inflammation (sterile or infectious) that may lead to effects on the brain, cause sickness behavior and induce or/and accelerate brain diseases such as MS and PD. There are currently active investigations into treatments for a compromised BBB. As a consequence of the growing aging population, many such neurodegenerative diseases, cancer and infections of the brain will become more prevalent.  Of interest here are those disorders requiring treatment by delivery of drugs across the brain protective barriers. 

I will review the difficulties inherent in the delivery of drugs across the BBB in the treatment oif the above neurological disorders, and discuss the mechanisms for drug targeting both “through” and “behind” the BBB. I will also suggest approaches for the enhancement of drug delivery including physiological approaches, chemical and biological delivery, disruption of the BBB system, the use of molecular Trojan horse systems, and the various nanoparticle and nano delivering devices.