Nanoparticles for Diagnosis and/or Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease

Recent attempts to develop nanoparticulate systems for diagnosis and/or therapy of neurodegenerative diseases, with main focus on Alzheimer's Disease (AD) are presented. Since the main obstacle to treat brain-located pathologies is the bloodbrain barrier, a brief description of its physiology, and methodologies used for studying transport of drugs across the BBB, are mentioned. All types of nanoparticulates which have been employed to-date to target AD (and deliver drugs or imaging substances to AD-related pathological features) are described, and the results accomplished so far together with advantages/disadvantages of each specifi c category of nanoparticles are mentioned. The philosophy and main physicochemical characteristic prerequisites of nanoparticles used as systems to target diseases in general, and brain-located pathologies particularly, are analyzed. Finally, the main current accomplishments and challenges for the future are summarized.