Recently, the development of nanotechnology and nanomaterial has promoted extremely the application of drug delivery systems in the biomedical field. However, the drug delivery into the central nervous system (CNS) is limited because the existence of the blood brain barrier (BBB). Therefore, to develop the efficient drug delivery systems (DDS) for crossing the BBB into the lesions is necessary. The holistic DDS, which successfully transfer drug into the brain, should be explored on the basis of biodegradable and non-cytotoxic nanomaterial. In this review, we discussed the applications of nanoparticles-mediated DDS in the CNS and focused on the varied nanocarrier strategies used for crossing the BBB and targeting the brain lesions, such as poly (PEG, PLA, and PLGA) covalent-attached to nanoparticles strategies, lipid nanocarrier DDS strategy, polymeric/dendritic nanocarrier DDS strategies, magnetic nanocarrier DDS strategy, and other (carbon nanotubes, viral, gold, silica etc.) nanocarrier DDS strategies. In conclusion, the platform carrying nanoparticles-based drug vehicle is vital and promising for developing the special brain drug delivery system. In future multifunctional nanocarriers may play more important role in treating various neurological diseases.
Keywords: Nanoparticle, drug delivery system, central nervous system, blood brain barrier.