ABSTRACT
Alzheimer disease (AD) and Parkinson disease (PD) are the most devastating central nervous system (CNS) disorders, affecting more than 6 million Americans (Nutt 2005). Worldwide, approximately 33.9 million people have AD (Banks 2012), which is followed by PD (Kumar 2010). Both of these debilitating neurodegenerative disorders cause worldwide medical and socioeconomic burden. As these diseases advance, the increasing disability interferes with a patient’s capacity to perform day-to-day activities, which increases the burden on families and caregivers. AD is characterized by dementia or memory dysfunction, loss of cognitive function, depression, loss of judgment,
Contents 7.1 Neurodegenerative diseases ................................................................. 161 7.2 Blood-brain barrier ...............................................................................163 7.3 Nanoparticles for theranostics ..............................................................165 7.4 Uptake of nanoparticles by brain cells ................................................166 7.5 Use of nanomaterials as delivery vehicles ........................................... 167
7.5.1 Nanoparticles conjugated with chelating ligands ..................... 167 7.5.2 Nanoparticles loaded with cholinesterase inhibitors ...............168 7.5.3 Nanoparticles with payloads of drugs ......................................169 7.5.4 Hormone-loaded nanoparticles ................................................. 170 7.5.5 Nanoparticles loaded with polyphenolic phytochemicals ......... 170 7.5.6 Nanoparticles conjugated with antioxidant molecules ............. 171 7.5.7 Metallic nanoparticles ................................................................ 171 7.5.8 Polymeric nanoparticles .............................................................. 172
7.6 Nanoparticles for imaging and diagnosis ............................................ 173 7.7 Toxicity issues of nanoparticles ............................................................ 175 7.8 Conclusions ........................................................................................... 175 Acknowledgments........................................................................................... 176 References ....................................................................................................... 176
and violent behaviors with progression of the disease (Banks 2012). The rate of AD increases in the population with aging: 5-10% of individuals who are 60-80 years of age have AD, increasing to 40-50% for individuals older than 85 years (Sahni 2012). Thus, institutionalizing patients in their final years of life accounts for large share of direct costs from the health care system. In United States, it is estimated that the cost of AD will exceed $500 billion annually by 2020 (Smith 1998); the cost of PD is predicted to exceed $50 million by 2040 (Findley 2007).
