Washington: Researchers have said that when it comes to brain diseases pills are actually an extremely ineffecient way to deliver drugs to the brain.
Massimiliano Di Cagno, assistant professor at the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark, said people with brain diseases are often given huge amounts of unnecessary drugs. During a long life, or if you have a chronic disease, this may become problematic for your health.
He and his colleagues at University of Southern Denmark and Aalborg University have turned their attention to the nose - specifically the nasal wall and the slimy mucosa that covers it.
As we know from e.g. cocaine addicts, substances can be assimilated extremely quickly and directly through the nose. But many medical substances, however, need help to be transported through the nasal wall and further on to the relevant places in the brain.
The vehicles for drug delivery through the nose are typically made of so called polymers. A polymer is a large molecule composed of a large number of repeats of one or more types of atoms or groups of atoms bound to each other. Polymers can be natural or synthetic, simple or complex.
The study has been published in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics.
