Applications of Nanoparticles for Alzheimer’s Disease Diagnosis and/or Treatment

Pp: 161-221 (61)

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Abstract

This chapter is dedicated to the applications of nanoparticles (NPs) for the diagnosis and treatment (or therapy) of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Today, the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) is considered to be one of the main challenges for treatment and diagnosis of AD. In this chapter, after a brief introduction about the disease and its related pathologies, the BBB physiology and the methodologies used for investigation of the transport of drugs across the BBB are described, together with the main physicochemical characteristic prerequisites of NPs that may be proposed as therapeutic and/or diagnostic systems for brain-located pathologies. In the second part, all the types of NPs (delivering drugs and/or imaging agents) which have been explored up-to-date for diagnosis or therapy of AD are presented, together with the advantages and disadvantages of each type. Finally, current accomplishments and future challenges are summarized.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, Aβ-plaques, BBB, brain, liposome, nanoparticle, neurodegenerative, neurofibrillary-tangles, targeting, theragnosis.