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Peptide transport across the blood-brain barrier

1990; Elsevier BV; Volume: 13; Issue: 2-3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0168-3659(90)90008-h

1873-4995

Joost B. M. M. van Bree, Albertus G. de Boer, J. Coos Verhoef, Meindert Danhof, D. D. Breimer,

Neuropeptides and Animal Physiology

The progress in isolation and culturing techniques of cerebrovascular endothelial cells, which will be briefly reviewed, enabled the development of in vitro models of the blood-brain barrier. The in vitro models, which are by now extensively characterized and validated, can generally be applied to specific aspects of blood-brain barrier anatomy and physiology and can also offer a valuable tool in drug disposition studies. Application of the in vitro model to the specific question of peptide transport across the blood-brain barrier, offers numerous methodological advantages: basic physiological parameters can be controlled and different experimental setups, not available in the in vivo setup, can be applied, thereby offering means to obtain a more thorough understanding of the basic aspects and mechanisms responsible for peptide transport across the blood-brain barrier. This approach will be illustrated by means of studies performed on a vasopressin-like model-peptide and will be presented in perspective of in vivo studies performed with the same peptide. Potential application of the in vitro blood-brain barrier model also includes the field of transport enhancement of poorly transported drugs, a maybe essential prerequisite for further development of peptides into therapeutically beneficial drugs.