Miami |
A group of researchers at the University of Miami (UM) found that some medicines to treat AIDS or HIV, the virus that causes the disease, can help fight a wide range of neurological problems, the report said on Wednesday. institution.
A team at UM’s Miller School of Medicine led by Shanta Dhar found in laboratory tests that “a nanoparticle drug delivery system can reduce viral HIV / AIDS deposits in the brain that normally contribute to neurological problems. “.
Dhar, who is also deputy director of technology and innovation at the University of Miami’s Silvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, noted that although HIV can be treated as a chronic condition, current drugs “cannot cross the blood-brain barrier.”
“Therefore, the ability of nanoparticles to administer antiretroviral drugs to the brain is a significant advance that could potentially improve the treatment of brain cancers and other diseases,” the scientist added in a statement in a university note.
The specialist stated that the administration of nanoparticle drugs offers a new way to treat neurocognitive disorders associated with the AIDS virus, “such as HIV dementia,” and, in general, “has great potential to improve treatment. of a wide range of brain diseases “.
Over the past decade, Dhar has studied a polymer chain nanoparticle as a pathway for intracellular drug administration and his most recent study has been published in the American Chemical Society, ACS Nano.
Part of the research was a team of scientists from the International University of Florida (FIU), also based in Miami, including Nagesh Kolishetti, who stressed that in the experimental model were also used “antioxidant and anti-inflammatory neuroprotectors to address stress and inflammation in brain cells “.