Drug Delivery Strategies to Overcome the Blood Brain Barrier
The blood-brain barrier stops most anti-tumor drugs from reaching the brain to treat the tumors. Therefore, the mortality rate for brain tumors is 66%, and the median survival is only 9 to 12 months. To address this problem, my project is looking into using neutrophils to deliver anti-tumor drugs to the brain. As white blood cells, neutrophils are allowed to cross the blood brain barrier. The drugs of interest will be packaged in small elements called nanoparticles. When the neutrophils encounter the nanoparticles in the bloodstream, they will take them up inside the neutrophils. The neutrophils will then bring the nanoparticle-drug complex to the brain. Once they cross the blood-brain barrier, neutrophils will release the drugs in the brain to treat the tumors. We hope that this novel approach will improve the therapy for brain tumor patients.
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Pharmaceutical Sciences
Xinyue (Sheena) Dong is a fourth year Ph.D student in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. She is originally from China and earned her Bachelor’s degree from China Pharmaceutical University. Xinyue’s current research is focused on developing novel nanoparticle-drug delivery systems to alleviate reperfusion injury after ischemic stroke and to treat brain tumors (glioma).