NEXT GEN TRANS-BBB DRUG DELIVERY

[PDConscience]

"A team led by Elisa Konofagou, Robert and Margaret Hariri Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Professor of Radiology (Physics) at Columbia Engineering, has been developing a novel technique that could open up new ways to facilitate targeted drug delivery into the brain and enable drugs to treat brain diseases more focally... Focusing on Parkinson's disease, in collaboration with Serge Przedborski's group in the department of neurology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, they discovered that protein delivery and gene delivery across the BBB can partly restore the dopaminergic pathways, the neurons in the brain that are affected in early Parkinson's disease.

"We found both behavioral and anatomical neuronal improvements in the brain," says Konofagou, who led the study. "This is the first time that anyone has been able to restore a dopaminergic pathway with available drugs at the early stages of Parkinson's disease. We were able to curb the rapid progression of neurodegeneration while improving the neuronal function. We expect our study will open new therapeutic avenues for the early treatment of central nervous system diseases.

"Because Konofagou's system is portable, doctors will be able to treat patients anywhere in a hospital and, in the future, even at a patient's home. Treatment can be completed in less than 30 minutes, compared to three to four hours for MRI-guided therapy, and monitored in real-time, a unique feature of the new device. The cost is 10 times less than the MRI-guided helmet."

Full Article: sciencedaily.com/releases/2...

[WinnieThePoo]

Yet more reason for optimism that new treatment possibilities are ahead of us, and tomorrow should be better for PWP. Keep em coming

[MBAnderson]

They haven't scratched the surface yet on what FUS capabilities might be and there is already a couple dozen applications.