Emerging Insights for Better Delivery of Chemicals and Stem Cells to the Brain.

The human central nervous system and its vascularity has evolved a complex yet useful barricade, called the blood-brain barrier. The understanding of this barrier and the transport proteins that allow a selective access across it remains fundamental in designing chemicals and molecules that could cross it and prove therapeutically beneficial. After the recent findings of the brain-lymphatic link and the movement of chemical molecules from the central nervous system into general circulation, the model of the blood-brain barrier needs to be revisited. Here the author intends to discuss the components of the blood-brain barrier, debate the novel routes of administration and delivery systems for the drugs and embryonic stem cells that could cross or bypass the blood-brain barrier in order to reach the central nervous system.