Brain-TAG: an innovative strategy for brain-targeted therapeutic delivery

Daniel Gonzalez

Fundació Institut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

Treating diseases that affect the brain is extremely difficult, as most treatments cannot reach the brain due to its protective vasculature. To try to overcome this obstacle, traditional methods attempt to use natural features on the blood vessels to guide medicines to the brain. However, these features are not unique to the brain—they are also present in other organs like the lungs and the liver. As a result, medicines often end up in places where they are not needed, lowering the efficacy of therapies and increasing unwanted side effects. Hence, many common problems, such as Alzheimer’s disease and various brain cancers, could be treated more effectively if medicines were delivered specifically to the brain, leaving the rest of the body unaffected.

The Brain-TAG project introduces a completely new solution to this problem. Instead of depending on natural features, the research group has developed a process to create special “stopping points” only on the blood vessels in the brain. These stopping points are generated by injecting proteins which are displayed specifically on the brain’s blood vessels. This method is unique because it does not rely on what the body already has; instead, it creates new, artificial sites where medicines can attach. In tests with healthy animals, the Brain-TAG stopping points have helped to bring treatments directly to the brain.

The main goals of the project are now to confirm that this method works effectively in sick animals and to understand exactly how these proteins connect to the blood vessels of the brain. If successful, medicines could be sent straight to where they are needed in the brain, making treatments more effective and safer, with fewer problems in the rest of the body. This breakthrough offers hope for improved care for people with serious brain conditions and may change how these diseases are treated in the future.

Generating Artificial Targets to Deliver Therapies Selectively to the Brain

Stage 1