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Delivering anything therapeutic to the brain has long been a challenge, largely due to the blood-brain barrier, a layer of cells that separates the vessels that supply the brain with blood from the brain itself. Now, in a study published August 12 in Nature Biotechnology, researchers have found that double-stranded RNA-DNA duplexes with attached cholesterol can enter the brains of both mice and rats and change the levels of targeted proteins. The results suggest a possible route to developing drugs that could target the genes implicated in disorders such as muscular dystrophy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
“It’s really exciting to have a study that’s focused on delivery to the central nervous system” with antisense oligonucleotides given systemically, says Michelle Hastings, who investigates genetic disease at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in Chicago and was not involved in the study. The authors “showed ...
