A BRIEF REVIEW ON NOSE-TO-BRAIN DELIVERY OF LIPID BASED NANOSYSTEMS FOR EPILEPSY

Ankita Vishwakarma*, Vinay Kumar and Shruti Khare

ABSTRACT

Epileptic seizures or Convulsion crisis are severe conditions that require fast and effective treatment, targeting the brain. Current emergency anti-epileptics and anticonvulsants have limited brain bioavailability, following oral, intravenous or rectal administration. This relates with the limited extent at which these drugs bypass the blood brain barrier (BBB). Thereby, the development of strategies that significantly improve the brain bioavailability of these drugs, along with a simple and safe administration by patients, attenuating and/or preventing epileptic seizures or convulsant crisis, are still a major need. In this respect, the nasal/intranasal route has been suggested as a promising strategy for drug targeting to the brain, thus avoiding the BBB. Besides, the use of lipid-based nano-systems, such as solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) and nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC), liposomes, nano-emulsions and microemulsions, have been demonstrating high efficiency for nose-to-brain transport. This review highlights the potential of using lipid-based nano-systems in the management of epilepsy or convulsion, by means of the nasal/intranasal route. So far, the reported studies have shown promising results, being required more in vivo experiments to further advance for clinical trials.

Keywords: Antiepileptics; convulsion; Anticonvulsant; Epilepsy; Lipid-based nano-systems; Nasal/intranasal route.