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Drug-delivering particles aim to breach the blood–brain barrier

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The inability to get drugs into the brain has impeded the treatment of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases for decades. Techniques based on nanoparticles and exosomes are vying to provide a solution.

By

  1. Simon Makin

    1. Simon Makin is a freelance writer in Reading, UK.

A Trojan horse, carrying medicines, in front of a wall made of cells. A door in the wall is open, revealing the brain behind.

Illustration: Julia Specht represented by Roar Artists

The most formidable barrier in medicine is the one that separates the brain from the bloodstream. Some small, simple chemical compounds such as paracetamol can cross the blood–brain barrier, but for larger molecules, such as proteins and messenger RNA, it is completely impermeable. There is a good reason for this — toxins and pathogens swimming in the blood could wreak havoc in the brain. But the barrier also makes it difficult to treat the devastating diseases that affect this delicate organ.

Nature 657, S4-S7 (2026)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-02655-6

This article is part of Nature Outlook: Drug delivery, a supplement produced with financial support from Taiho Oncology, Inc. Nature maintains full independence in all editorial decisions related to the content. About this content.

References

  1. Wang, C. et al. Nature Mater. 24, 1653–1663 (2025).

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