New Nanocapsules Deliver Therapy Brain-Wide, Edit Alzheimer’s Gene in Mice
New Nanocapsules Deliver Therapy Brain-Wide, Edit Alzheimer’s Gene in Mice
Gene therapies have the potential to treat neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, but they face a common barrier — the blood-brain barrier. Now, researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have developed a way to move therapies across the brain’s protective membrane to deliver brain-wide therapy with a range of biological medications and treatments.
Shaoqin “Sarah” Gong, PhD, has developed nanocapsules that can deliver CRISPR genome editors past the blood-brain barrier, and is aiming to treat various types of retinitis pigmentosa — another advance from McPherson ERI scientists.
UW researchers have found a way to move gene therapies through the blood-brain barrier, a crucial step for brain-wide CRISPR treatments of disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.