Delivering complex drugs directly to the brain – technology breakthrough being commercialised by Isis

21st March 2011

Oxford University scientists have developed a new method for delivering complex drugs directly to the brain, a necessary step for treating diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Motor Neuron Disease and Muscular Dystrophy.

These diseases have largely resisted attempts to over the last 50 years develop new treatments, partly because of the difficulty of getting effective new drugs to the brain to slow or halt disease progression.

The team has successfully switched off a gene implicated in Alzheimer’s disease in the brains of mice by exploiting exosomes – tiny particles naturally released by cells. The exosomes, injected into the blood, are able to ferry a drug across the normally impermeable blood-brain barrier to the brain where it is needed.

Although this is a significant and promising result, there are a number of steps to be taken before this new form of drug delivery can be tested in humans in the clinic. The study, partly funded by the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, is published in Nature Biotechnology.

Oxford University Innovation is considering both licensing and spin-out options for commercialising this technology.

Press release sign up