From the Robert Packard Center ALS News Network
March 2, 2005

Three different disease research organizations--working to cure
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer's disease and brain
tumors--are pulling together for a uniquely focused project, one that
aims to overcome a well-known stumbling block in drug delivery.

The Packard Center for ALS Research, The Alzheimer's Association and
Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure, Inc. (ABC2) have set up a first-time
collaboration based on their common need for new therapeutics that
target the central nervous system.

"A major impediment to our finding therapies has been the inability to
get potentially good drugs into the brain or spinal cord," says Jeffrey Rothstein, the neuroscientist who heads The Packard Center. Both organs are enclosed by the blood-brain barrier, a fairly impermeable layer of tightly-pressed blood vessels and nervous system tissue, one that effectively keeps out harmful substances.

Unfortunately, Rothstein says, the barrier also excludes drugs that might protect the nervous system, keep diseases from progressing or help restore damaged tissue.

The new group, called The Brain Trust Collaborative, actively seeks
research projects aimed at developing tools and methods to ease drug
transport into the brain. "The Trust, in the future, will also be
targeting other roadblocks to therapy," adds Rothstein. "It's an
exciting effort to link brain organizations and their scientists."