DRUG DELIVERY TO BRAIN AND BONE MARROW: A REVIEW
Rahul Saikia, Ashis Kumar Goswami and Hemanta Kumar Sharma*
ABSTRACT
The available figures for central nervous system (CNS) pathology has demonstrated that approximately 1.5 billion
people undergoing from disorders of CNS. The most distressing fact about delivery of drugs to the CNS is the
presence of blood brain barrier (BBB) that have a tendency to impair the drug distribution and it denotes the major
impediment for the development of CNS drugs. Despite great strides in the basic science of brain physiology and
disease in the past decade, delivery issues have received minimal attention. Current estimates are that 98% of all
small molecule drugs minimally cross the BBB, and miniscule amounts of large molecule drugs cross the BBB,
except leakage in areas of BBB dysfunction. The bone marrow is a prime haematopoietic organ. Bone marrow
targeted drug delivery systems appear to offer a promising strategy for advancing diagnostic, protective and/or
therapeutic medicine for the hematopoietic system. Therapeutic approaches might include gene therapy, selective
delivery and local release of antimicrobials, as well as agents that could induce self-renewal, proliferation, and
maturation of stem and progenitor cells. The key to such approaches, however, may reside in the distinct
physiological function of the major vascular constituents of the bone marrow, the so called sinuses. In light of all
the above mentioned possibilities this review has been designed to understand the various measures of drug
delivery across BBB and bone marrow.
Keywords: Blood brain barrier; Bone marrow; Liposomes; Nanoparticles.
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