Unilateral Administration of Surface-Modified G1 and G4 PAMAM Dendrimers in Healthy Mice to Assess Dendrimer Migration in the Brain.

Polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers are nanoparticles that have a wide scope in the field of biomedicine. Previous evidence shows that the generation 4 (G4) dendrimers with a 100% amine surface (G4-NH) are highly toxic to cells and due to their positively charged amine groups. To reduce the toxicity, we modified the surface of the dendrimers to have more neutral functional groups, with 10% of the surface covered with -NH and 90% of the surface covered with hydroxyl groups (-OH; G4-90/10).

Behavioral context improves optogenetic stimulation of transplanted dopaminergic cells in unilateral 6-OHDA rats.

Stem cell therapy has long been a popular method of treatment for Parkinson's disease currently being researched in both preclinical and clinical settings. While early clinical results are based upon fetal tissue transplants rather than stem cell transplants, the lack of successful integration in some patients and gradual loss of effect in others suggests a more robust protocol is needed. We propose a two-front approach, one where transplants are directly stimulated in coordination with host activity elicited by behavioral tasks, which we refer to as behavioral context.

Surface-Modified G4 PAMAM Dendrimers Cross the Blood-Brain Barrier Following Multiple Tail-Vein Injections in C57BL/6J Mice.

Intracranial injections are currently used to deliver drugs into the brain, as most drugs cannot cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) following systemic injections. Moreover, multiple dosing is difficult with invasive techniques. Therefore, viable systemic techniques are necessary to facilitate treatment paradigms that require multiple dosing of therapeutics across the BBB.