About this Research Topic
Over the last years there has been a growing interest in intranasal delivery of drugs noninvasively by bypassing the blood-brain barrier for the treatment of several central nervous system disorders (e.g., multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, psychosis, central pain, brain cancer, among others). Nasal drug delivery offers many pharmacological advantages over standard systemic delivery routes, such as its non-invasive character, a fast onset of action and, in many cases, improved efficacy and reduced peripheral side-effects due to a more targeted delivery thus high benefit to low risk ratio. Hence, intranasal delivery provides patient comfort and compliance that are hurdled by parenteral drug therapy and could result in faster systemic drug absorption than the oral route.
It is commonly accepted that efficacy-related issues arise due to the inability of parenterally or orally administered drugs to cross the blood-brain barrier in order to access the central nervous system, thus impeding their successful delivery to brain tissues. As a result, the direct nose-to-brain delivery has emerged as a powerful strategy to circumvent the blood-brain barrier and to deliver drugs to the brain with improved efficacy and reduced off-target effects. However, there are several limitations that may hamper drug absorption through the nasal mucosa, particularly the drug molecular weight, intrinsic permeability, muco-cilliary clearance, and local toxicity issues. To overcome these issues further developments are needed.
Therefore, the main goal of this Research Topic is to gather the latest evidence and recent pharmacological advances in the field related to the intranasal administration and thus the associated opportunities, especially for central nervous system active drugs, compared to the existing routes in terms of efficacy and safety.
We expect to receive high quality Original Research and Review articles with focus on innovative advances for improving brain targeting of central nervous system (CNS)-active drugs after administration by intranasal route, covering multiple topics related to drug research (e.g., nanopharmaceutical studies, nonclinical or clinical studies) and highlighting potential pharmacological advances on drug efficacy and safety.
It is commonly accepted that efficacy-related issues arise due to the inability of parenterally or orally administered drugs to cross the blood-brain barrier in order to access the central nervous system, thus impeding their successful delivery to brain tissues. As a result, the direct nose-to-brain delivery has emerged as a powerful strategy to circumvent the blood-brain barrier and to deliver drugs to the brain with improved efficacy and reduced off-target effects. However, there are several limitations that may hamper drug absorption through the nasal mucosa, particularly the drug molecular weight, intrinsic permeability, muco-cilliary clearance, and local toxicity issues. To overcome these issues further developments are needed.
Therefore, the main goal of this Research Topic is to gather the latest evidence and recent pharmacological advances in the field related to the intranasal administration and thus the associated opportunities, especially for central nervous system active drugs, compared to the existing routes in terms of efficacy and safety.
We expect to receive high quality Original Research and Review articles with focus on innovative advances for improving brain targeting of central nervous system (CNS)-active drugs after administration by intranasal route, covering multiple topics related to drug research (e.g., nanopharmaceutical studies, nonclinical or clinical studies) and highlighting potential pharmacological advances on drug efficacy and safety.
Keywords: Brain targeting, Central nervous system, Intranasal drug delivery, Nasal route, Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
