Targeting nanoparticles to the brain by exploiting the blood–brain barrier impermeability to selectively label the brain endothelium

Abstract

Current strategies to direct therapy-loaded nanoparticles to the brain rely on functionalizing nanoparticles with ligands which bind target proteins associated with the blood–brain barrier (BBB). However, such strategies have significant brain-specificity limitations, as target proteins are not exclusively expressed at the brain microvasculature. Therefore, novel strategies which exploit alternative characteristics of the BBB are required to overcome nonspecific nanoparticle targeting to the periphery, thereby increasing drug efficacy and reducing detrimental peripheral side effects. Here, we present a simple, yet counterintuitive, brain-targeting strategy which exploits the higher impermeability of the BBB to selectively label the brain endothelium. This is achieved by harnessing the lower endocytic rate of brain endothelial cells (a key feature of the high BBB impermeability) to promote selective retention of free, unconjugated protein-binding ligands on the surface of brain endothelial cells compared to peripheral endothelial cells. Nanoparticles capable of efficiently binding to the displayed ligands (i.e., labeled endothelium) are consequently targeted specifically to the brain microvasculature with minimal “off-target” accumulation in peripheral organs. This approach therefore revolutionizes brain-targeting strategies by implementing a two-step targeting method which exploits the physiology of the BBB to generate the required brain specificity for nanoparticle delivery, paving the way to overcome targeting limitations and achieve clinical translation of neurological therapies. In addition, this work demonstrates that protein targets for brain delivery may be identified based not on differential tissue expression, but on differential endocytic rates between the brain and periphery.