Straightforward Surgery Advances Drug Delivery To The Brain

Adopting an endoscopic nasal grafting technique used in tumor excision and to plug leaks resulting from herniated tissue in the nose, a team led by Benjamin Bleier, MD, a surgeon at the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary, a part of Harvard Medical School, has shown the ability to deliver glial-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) across the blood-brain barrier effectively and with reduced side effects. Their work thus far has been in a mouse model. But it could move rapidly into clinical testing in neurodegenerative diseases given the already-established regulatory pathway for GDNF and the established nature of the skull-based surgery. Also, while GDNF may offer a practical route to proof-of-concept, the technique could form the basis for delivering a wide range of existing drugs as well as new compounds whose development is predicated on use of the technique.

For many years, clinicians have contemplated drug delivery to the brain by spraying compounds into the nose, based on the fact that olfactory nerve fibers penetrate the lining between the...