Journal
PHARMACEUTICS
Volume 12, Issue 6, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/pharmaceutics12060542
Keywords
Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs); blood-brain barrier (BBB); central nervous system (CNS); microfluidics; organ-on-a-chip; brain-on-a-chip; brain delivery; drug delivery; nanoparticles (NPs); nanocarriers
Categories
Funding
- Applied Molecular Biosciences Unit - UCIBIO - Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia [UIDB/04378/2020]
- Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT) [UID/Multi/04546/2019]
- ERASMUS + programme
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [UID/Multi/04546/2019] Funding Source: FCT
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Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) bear a lot of weight in public health. By studying the properties of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and its fundamental interactions with the central nervous system (CNS), it is possible to improve the understanding of the pathological mechanisms behind these disorders and create new and better strategies to improve bioavailability and therapeutic efficiency, such as nanocarriers. Microfluidics is an intersectional field with many applications. Microfluidic systems can be an invaluable tool to accurately simulate the BBB microenvironment, as well as develop, in a reproducible manner, drug delivery systems with well-defined physicochemical characteristics. This review provides an overview of the most recent advances on microfluidic devices for CNS-targeted studies. Firstly, the importance of the BBB will be addressed, and different experimental BBB models will be briefly discussed. Subsequently, microfluidic-integrated BBB models (BBB/brain-on-a-chip) are introduced and the state of the art reviewed, with special emphasis on their use to study NDs. Additionally, the microfluidic preparation of nanocarriers and other compounds for CNS delivery has been covered. The last section focuses on current challenges and future perspectives of microfluidic experimentation.
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