Computational and Pharmacological Target of Neurovascular Unit for Drug Design and Delivery

Figure 4

Pathways across the blood-brain barrier. Endothelial cells and end feet of astrocytes that form NVU contain five trafficking routes. Only a handful of drugs can cross BBB. Although most CNS drugs enter via lipophilic rout (size no longer than 600 Da), pharmacological targets are another three pathways to efficient drug delivery. The figure is adopted from Abbott et al. [59].