Yoichi Morofuji* and Shinsuke Nakagawa Pages 1466 - 1485 ( 20 )
An important goal of biomedical research is to translate basic research findings into practical clinical implementation. Despite the advances in the technology used in drug discovery, the development of drugs for central nervous system diseases remains challenging. The failure rate for new drugs targeting important central nervous system diseases is high compared to most other areas of drug discovery. The main reason for the failure is the poor penetration efficacy across the blood-brain barrier. The blood-brain barrier represents the bottleneck in central nervous system drug development and is the most important factor limiting the future growth of neurotherapeutics. Meanwhile, drug repositioning has been becoming increasingly popular and it seems a promising field in central nervous system drug development. In vitro blood-brain barrier models with high predictability are expected for drug development and drug repositioning. In this review, the recent progress of in vitro BBB models and the drug repositioning for central nervous system diseases will be discussed.
Blood-brain barrier, central nervous system disease, drug development, drug repositioning, neurotherapeutics, penetration efficacy.
Department of Neurosurgery, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8501, Department of Medical Pharmacology, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 1-12-4 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8523