Nanotherapeutics Overcoming the Blood-Brain Barrier for Glioblastoma Treatment

Lin Tang; Yicheng Feng; Sai Gao; Qingchun Mu; Chaoyong Liu

doi:10.3389/fphar.2021.786700

Nanotherapeutics Overcoming the Blood-Brain Barrier for Glioblastoma Treatment

Front Pharmacol. 2021 Nov 25:12:786700. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2021.786700. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Lin Tang^{1

2}, Yicheng Feng¹, Sai Gao¹, Qingchun Mu³, Chaoyong Liu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, China.
² College of Life Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, China.
³ The People's Hospital of Gaozhou, Gaozhou, China.

Abstract

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common malignant primary brain tumor with a poor prognosis. The current standard treatment regimen represented by temozolomide/radiotherapy has an average survival time of 14.6 months, while the 5-year survival rate is still less than 5%. New therapeutics are still highly needed to improve the therapeutic outcome of GBM treatment. The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is the main barrier that prevents therapeutic drugs from reaching the brain. Nanotechnologies that enable drug delivery across the BBB hold great promise for the treatment of GBM. This review summarizes various drug delivery systems used to treat glioma and focuses on their approaches for overcoming the BBB to enhance the accumulation of small molecules, protein and gene drugs, etc. in the brain.

Keywords: blood-brain barrier; drug delivery; glioblastoma; nanocarriers; nanotherapeutics.

Publication types

Review