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“Messing with” the Blood-Brain Barrier May Be Key to Treating a Host of Diseases

For all its complexity, traffic between the bloodstream and brain is governed by an exceedingly simple set of rules. To cross, a compound must either be smaller than 500 kilodaltons (like most antidepressants, antipsychotics and sleep aids), able to use one of the natural gateways embedded in the barrier itself (like the Parkinson's drug l-dopa), or be lipophilic, meaning it has an affinity for lipids and can thus bind to and slip across the lipid cell membrane (like alcohol, cocaine and heroin). By most estimates, 98 percent of all medications fail to meet any of these criteria, which means they cross the barrier in quantities so minuscule as to be medically useless—or they do not cross at…

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 The Blood Brain Barrier Blog from Dr Yvonne Couch

So what is it about the vascular endothelium in the brain which is different from the vasculature elsewhere? We’ll begin with the endothelial cells. These are the mainstay of the vasculature and in the blood brain barrier they are connected by tight junctions. There are tight junctions elsewhere in the vascular tree, usually in larger vessels with high flow rates, but in the brain the tight junctions go all the way down to capillaries and post-capillary venules. These tight junctions are formed by a network of proteins which basically bind the endothelial cells tightly together and prevent the random passing of most things into your brain.

Articles of Interest

All About The Blood-Brain Barrier

These cell and vessel networks weave together to create the blood-brain barrier, which covers almost every part of the brain. This all-important structure makes sure the brain gets the nutrients and molecules it needs. Simultaneously, this highly sensitive network strictly controls which substances can pass into brain tissue, protecting the brain from diseases and toxins. People who have a fully-functional blood-brain barrier (BBB) tend to have lower levels of brain inflammation and balanced levels of different vital chemicals.

Blood-Brain Barrier Overview: Structural and Functional Correlation

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a semipermeable and extremely selective system in the central nervous system of most vertebrates, that separates blood from the brain's extracellular fluid. It plays a vital role in regulating the transport of necessary materials for brain function, furthermore, protecting it from foreign substances in the blood that could damage it.

Blood-Brain Barrier Truths

As easy as it is to convince us that our blood-brain barrier is an impermeable presence that makes us impenetrable to the dangers that industries release into our world, all we have to do is look around us at the suffering on this planet to be reminded that this doesn’t add up.

Chemotherapy Drugs Broke the Blood-Brain Barrier for the First Time

The blood-brain barrier, a highly selective film of cells that stops dangerous neurotoxins and life-saving cancer drugs alike from entering the brain, just had its Pioneer 10 moment.

Crossing the Blood-Brain Barrier

The blood-brain barrier is the body’s first line of defense against infections that are able to reach the brain. The BBB keeps harmful chemicals out of the brain, but it also prevents many beneficial therapeutics from entering the brain. Less than 2% of small molecule drugs can pass the BBB.

Crossing the brain’s electrical frontier

New ways of getting inside patients’ heads.

Explainer: what is the blood-brain barrier and how can we overcome it?

Whereas the skull, meninges and cerebrospinal fluid protect against physical damage, the blood–brain barrier provides a defence against disease-causing pathogens and toxins that may be present in our blood.

Getting past the guards

Medicine: Researchers are developing a range of cunning techniques to smuggle drugs past the body’s natural defences.

How Pathogens Penetrate the Blood-Brain Barrier

Meningitis, syphilis and AIDS are 3 important causes of death worldwide. All 3 are caused by microorganisms that are capable of entering and infecting the CNS, but unfortunately, the BBB’s propensity for protection also acts as a hurdle to treatment.

How We’ve Succeeded In Breaching The Blood-Brain Barrier At Last

For the first time, researchers have made a drug that can cross this barrier. Just how big a deal is that?

New method delivers life-saving drugs to the brain—using sound waves

An emerging technique harnessing ultrasound may revolutionize treatment of fatal or hard-to-cure conditions, from cancer to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

New research offers hope for a way through the blood-brain barrier, ‘the final frontier for drug delivery’

We’ve evolved elegant protections for our brains. Gray matter deftly avoids contact with most interlopers, thanks to an intricate cellular shrink wrap called the blood-brain barrier. But this defense system creates its own challenges for us: It’s been extraordinarily difficult to design medicines that can target neurological illness. There’s hope that could change, though.

Restoring the blood-brain barrier?

There's a bouncer in everyone: The blood-brain barrier, a layer of cells between blood vessels and the rest of the brain, kicks out toxins, pathogens and other undesirables that can sabotage the brain's precious gray matter. When the bouncer is off its guard and a rowdy element gains entry, a variety of conditions can crop up.

The Amazing Blood-Brain Barrier

The blood-brain barrier is a protective barrier that actually decides which substances can cross from the bloodstream into the brain. The blood-brain barrier is semi-permeable (meaning: it lets some things through, and not others). The brain actually has its own “security system,”1 if you will. Therefore, all substances traveling through the blood vessels will not necessarily diffuse (get) into the brain. The types of things that tend to be able to diffuse into the brain from the blood are substances that can dissolve in fat. The cell membrane (covering of the cell), called the “lipid bi-layer,” is, itself, made of fat.

The Blood-Brain Barrier

The blood-brain barrier plays a vital role in protecting the brain from blood-borne disease and toxic compounds.

The Blood-Brain Barrier: The Frontier in Aging and Neurodegeneration

The brain is a delicate organ that needs a steady supply of nutrients and oxygen to function properly. The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a network of cells that act as a gatekeeper, controlling what can enter and leave the brain. It keeps out harmful substances, such as toxins and pathogens, while allowing in essential nutrients and oxygen. When the BBB is damaged, toxins can build up in the brain, leading to inflammation and cell death.

The Blood–Brain Barrier

The blood–brain barrier (BBB) is a term used to describe the unique properties of the microvasculature of the central nervous system (CNS). CNS vessels are continuous nonfenestrated vessels, but also contain a series of additional properties that allow them to tightly regulate the movement of molecules, ions, and cells between the blood and the CNS.

The problem with the blood-brain barrier

We all get infections from time to time, a cold or tummy bug, verruca or athletes foot. Viruses, bacteria and fungi can inflict pain and swelling if allowed to multiply in or on our bodies. But there’s a last line of defence that stops these nasty critters from inflicting damage on one of our most precious organs, our brains — it’s called the blood-brain barrier.

Unlocking the Secrets of the Blood-Brain Barrier

New research reveals crucial insights about the blood-brain barrier’s permeability. Using zebrafish and mice models, researchers identified a neuron-originating signal pivotal for the barrier’s formation and maintenance. This discovery could help manipulate the barrier’s permeability, enhancing drug delivery effectiveness and mitigating damage from neurodegenerative diseases or stroke.

Vibrating Micro-Bubbles Let Drugs Sneak Across the Blood-Brain Barrier

Ultrasound technology and micro-bubbles together have pried open one of the most resistant barriers in the body.

What is the Blood-Brain Barrier? + “Leaky” Brain Conditions

You may have heard of “leaky gut” or the weakening of the intestinal barrier. Just like the gut, the brain can also be “leaky.” Like the stomach barrier, the blood-brain barrier is lined with one layer of cells that separate the blood from the brain. It only allows a few substances like oxygen, hormones, and certain cytokines in, while blocking out others.

Why the Blood-Brain Barrier Is So Critical (and How to Maintain It)

You all know about intestinal permeability, or “leaky gut.” The job of the gut lining is to be selectively permeable, allowing helpful things passage into the body and preventing harmful things from getting in. Nutrients get through, toxins and pathogens do not. Leaky gut describes the failure of this vetting process. But what about “leaky brain”?

Resources

KenHub

With all the special activities that occur at the neuronal level, it is paramount that the chemical environment in which these cells operate is strictly regulated. This is the primary function of the blood-brain barrier.

Know Your Brain

The blood-brain barrier acts as an additional boundary between the circulating blood and the extracellular space of the brain. The barrier is highly selective, meaning it only allows certain substances to cross from the bloodstream into the brain.

StatPearls

The BBB is composed of cerebral capillary wall endothelial cells (ECs) held together via tight junctions (TJs). These TJs, surrounded by pericytes, astrocytes, and the basal lamina, contribute to the highly selective nature of the BBB, limiting the passage of substances from the blood to the brain more so than any other capillaries in the body.