Nano Neurology and the Four P's of Central Nervous System Regeneration: Preserve, Permit, Promote, Plasticity

Something every stroke reaearcher should know about, so tell yours.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025712507000594#

True nanomaterials are delivered as a specific structure, or combination of structures, designed to deliver the therapeutic intact, directly to the site, requiring a much lower dose. These materials use very specific and deliberate molecular structures that can interact with neurons or protein structures inside the cells. Until recently, functional recovery of the central nervous system (CNS) was an unattainable goal and nanotechnology was an invisible science. A well-planned treatment spaced over time will produce functional return in the CNS. The four P's of CNS regeneration is a new framework for approaching CNS injury and evidence shows that nanotechnology is currently being used for stroke rehabilitation and, in several clinical trials, the treatment of scar formation blockade in the spinal cord. The four components are preserve, permit, promote, and plasticity.

Article Outline

• Nanoscale versus nanotechnology
• Nanodelivery of material therapeutics into the brain requires a step-change in thinking
• Nanomaterial versus nanoenabled
• Replacing current neurologic procedures
• Framework for approaching neural trauma
• The four P's of central nervous system regeneration
• • First P: preserving the cell
  • • Questions that must be answered to determine cell loss
  • Second P: creating a permissive environment
  • • Three avenues to create a permissive environment
    • Questions that must be answered to create a permissive environment
    • Novel treatment to create permissive environment and knit brain tissue together
    • Self-assembling peptide nanofiber scaffold
  • Third P: promoting neuronal growth
  • • Questions that must be considered to promote central nervous system regeneration
  • Fourth P: plasticity
  • • Questions to determine the treatment regimen for functional return
• Nanoenabled procedures
• • Encapsulation
  • Buckyballs
• Health and safety issues
• • Effect of inhaled nanoparticles
  • Effects of various carbon nanoparticles on human platelets
  • Toxic effects of nanoparticles
• Nanotechnology and the future of implanted devices
• • Nanowires
• Protein misfolding diseases
• • Unlocking the puzzle of protein misfolding diseases
• Nanomachines that identify and target
• • Micelles
  • Nanotubes
  • Nanobombs
  • Carbon nanotubes ingested by white blood cells
• Imaging techniques with implications for nanomedicine
• • More accurate and localized diagnosis
  • Ultrasensitive medical imaging technique
  • Differentiating between cancerous and noncancerous lymph nodes
  • Using nanometer-sized particles to outline brain tumors and lesions
  • Microbubbles
  • Quantum dots
• Nanosurgery
• • New surgery that is enabled by nanotechnology
• References