Helen Mary Hall

Dr. Helen Mary Hall


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30 January 2025 in Brain Sciences
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
SKSmita Khilar
Smita Khilar
ADAntonina Dembinska-Kenner
Antonina Dembinska-Kenner
HHHelen Mary Hall
Helen Mary Hall
NSNikolaos Syrmos
Nikolaos Syrmos
GLGianfranco K. I. Ligarotti
Gianfranco K. I. Ligarotti
Mario GanauMario Ganau
Mario Ganau
(1) Background/Objectives: Primary and secondary brain tumours often hold devastating prognoses and low survival rates despite the application of maximal neurosurgical resection, and state-of-the-art radiotherapy and chemotherapy. One limiting factor in their management is that several antineoplastic agents are unable to cross the blood–brain barrier (BBB) to reach the tumour microenvironment. Nanomedicine could hold the potential to become an effective means of drug delivery to overcome previous hurdles towards effective neuro-oncological treatments. (2) Methods: A scoping review following the PRISMA-ScR guidelines and checklist was conducted using key terms input into PubMed to find articles that reflect emerging trends in the utilisation of nanomedicine in drug delivery for primary and secondary brain tumours. (3) Results: The review highlights various strategies by which different nanoparticles can be exploited to bypass the BBB; we provide a synthesis of the literature on the ongoing contributions to therapeutic protocols based on chemotherapy, immunotherapy, focused ultrasound, radiotherapy/radiosurgery, and radio-immunotherapy. (4) Conclusions: The emerging trends summarised in this scoping review indicate encouraging advantageous properties of nanoparticles as potential effective drug delivery mechanisms; however, there are still nanotoxicity issues that largely remain to be addressed before the translation of these innovations from laboratory to clinical practice.