Crossing the Blood Brain Barrier

The blood brain barrier (BBB) is an important obstacle to the effectiveness of compounds that seek to act on the central nervous system (CNS). The highly restrictive brain capillary bed represents a formidable barrier to many drugs. However, many natural compounds required to nourish the brain are selectively absorbed into the CNS. In some cases, rather large amounts of these compounds are actively pumped from blood to brain by transporter proteins in the brain's blood vessels. It is also known that active transport mechanisms play a role in the absorption of drug compounds into the brain.

XenoPort's strategy is to identify BBB transporters that have high capacity to transport compounds and can recognize the diverse molecular structures of drugs.

Antibody Detection of a Transporter That Is Highly Expressed on Brain Capillary Endothelial Cells

Once BBB transporters are characterized, XenoPort scientists are looking at ways to modify existing drugs and design new compounds to be readily transported across the BBB.