The blood-brain barrier serves to protect the brain from toxic substances whilst simultaneously allowing access to essential nutrients and chemical signals. At the interface between brain and body, knowledge of the blood-brain barrier forms an essential component in the complete understanding of a large proportion of medical disciplines. Nevertheless, it seems that ignorance of both the biology of this important membrane and the methodology suitable for its investigation still remains an impediment to progress in many fields, including, for example, the development of new and efficacious neuropharmaceuticals, cerebrovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, cerebral AIDS and brain tumours. This introduction for both researchers and clinicians across the medical sciences is intended to aid both those beginning work directly in this area and those wishing simply to be better informed when interpreting information where the blood-brain barrier may be involved. Advances in both methodology an
The blood-brain barrier serves to protect the brain from toxic substances whilst simultaneously allowing access to essential nutrients and chemical signals. At the interface between brain and body, knowledge of the blood-brain barrier forms an essential component in the complete understanding of a large proportion of medical disciplines. Nevertheless, it seems that ignorance of both the biology of this important membrane and the methodology suitable for its investigation still remains an impediment to progress in many fields, including, for example, the development of new and efficacious neuropharmaceuticals, cerebrovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, cerebral AIDS and brain tumours. This introduction for both researchers and clinicians across the medical sciences is intended to aid both those beginning work directly in this area and those wishing simply to be better informed when interpreting information where the blood-brain barrier may be involved. Advances in both methodology an
The thesis of this innovative and challenging book, first published in 2001, is that brain drug development has been restricted by the failure of adequate brain drug targeting, and that this is an increasingly urgent problem as developments in genomics lead to new generations of therapeutic macromolecules. The author, a world leader in the study of the blood-brain barrier and its clinical implications, reviews the field of neurotherapeutics from the point of view of drug targeting. He surveys the scientific and clinical basis of drug delivery across biological membranes, including topics such as genetically engineered trojan horses for drug targeting, antisense neurotherapeutics, and gene therapy of brain disorders. At a time when there are few significant new drug treatments in prospect for common neurological diseases, this authoritative review will encourage a wide range of clinicians and neuroscientists to reexamine the development and use of drugs in treating disorders of the cent
The thesis of this innovative and challenging book, first published in 2001, is that brain drug development has been restricted by the failure of adequate brain drug targeting, and that this is an increasingly urgent problem as developments in genomics lead to new generations of therapeutic macromolecules. The author, a world leader in the study of the blood-brain barrier and its clinical implications, reviews the field of neurotherapeutics from the point of view of drug targeting. He surveys the scientific and clinical basis of drug delivery across biological membranes, including topics such as genetically engineered trojan horses for drug targeting, antisense neurotherapeutics, and gene therapy of brain disorders. At a time when there are few significant new drug treatments in prospect for common neurological diseases, this authoritative review will encourage a wide range of clinicians and neuroscientists to reexamine the development and use of drugs in treating disorders of the cent
