NANOCARRIERS AS A POSSIBLE NEUROPEPTIDES DELIVERY SYSTEMS IN THE BRAIN

Girolamo Di Maio¹, Vincenzo Monda¹, Antonietta Messina¹, Rita Polito^{2, *}, Marcellino Monda¹, Alessio Asmundo³, Nunzio Di Nunno⁴, Ines Villano¹, Vincenzo Cristian Francavilla⁵

¹Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of Human Physiology and Unit of Dietetic and Sport Medicine, Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Napoli, Italy - ²Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy - ³Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences, and Morphological and Functional Images, Section of Legal Medicine,University of Messina, Messina, Italy - ⁴University of Salento, Lecce, Italy - ⁵Department of Economy, University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy - 8 School of Engineering, Architecture, and Motor Sciences, Kore University of Enna, Enna, Italy

Introduction: Neuropeptides are frequently identified as potential drugs for the development of new therapeutics or for the study of a variety of human cerebral diseases. Due to their instability when injected proteins and peptides need specific delivery systems, to stretch the biodisponibility. Nanocarriers can be a solution to solve the problem of transport to the central nervous system.

Material and method: We performed a data literature analysis from PubMed. We analyze data from multiple studies, reporting that nanovectors are a possible drug delivery system (DDS) in the central nervous system (CNS). 

Results: We found that several studies are developing nanocarriers for neuropeptides delivery through intranasal route or injected. With this strategy it is possible to deliver efficiently several drugs with different natures such as small polar molecules, peptides, and proteins, and also the large proteins, polysaccharides, and even neuropeptides entering the CNS. 

Conclusions: We can conclude that the developments of the nanocarriers as DDS for neuropeptides and the transport through the nasal passages are a promising strategy for the delivery of neuropeptides in CNS.