COMMANDing drug delivery
While we are starting to get a handle on drugs and therapeutics that might to help alleviate brain disorders, efficient delivery remains a roadblock to tackling these devastating diseases. New research from the Graybiel, Cima, and Langer labs at MIT now uses a computational approach, one that accounts for the irregular shape of the target brain region, to deliver drugs effectively and specifically. “Identifying therapeutic molecules that can treat neural disorders is just the first step,” says MIT Institute Professor Ann Graybiel, the senior author of the paper. “There is still a formidable challenge when it comes to precisely delivering the therapeutic to the cells most affected in the disorder. Because the brain is so structurally complex, and subregions are irregular in shape, new delivery approaches are urgently needed.” Fine targeting Brain disorders often arise from dysfunction in specific regions. Parkinson’s disease, for example, arises from loss of neurons in a specific forebrain...