University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers developed a technique in laboratory animals to consistently and reproducibly open the blood-brain barrier. This barrier serves as a barricade securing the brain from the external world blocking out certain environmental toxins, but also prevents drug therapies from reaching their intended targets. The new technique is based on a routine procedure for removing clots from the brain’s arteries in patients. This advancement was conducted by Piotr Walczak, MD, PhD, Professor of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and Miroslaw Janowski, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
The team published their detailed procedure on December 13, 2021, in Nature Protocols. Their paper essentially provides a roadmap for other researchers to develop and test new therapies for brain diseases. The hope is for researchers to use this procedure for treatments against brain cancer, neurological disorders like epilepsy, neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, or even mental illnesses. The researchers say the technique can potentially be applied in conjunction with the latest medical discoveries, such as genome editing or gene therapy to treat incurable cancers.
The procedure uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which provides feedback in real-time, to control where in the brain the blood-brain barrier gate opens, allowing materials to pass through into spaces that they are normally excluded.
