Press releases
Please quote Nature Materials as the source of these items.
June 2004
Microscopy spares animal lives in drug screening
The role of multiphoton microscopy is becoming increasingly important in biomedical imaging. This non-invasive laser-scanning microscopy has contributed to a better understanding of living tissues and their developmental or pathological processes. In the July issue of Nature Materials, this microscopy technique goes further in enabling the selection of neurological drugs according their ability to penetrate the brain.
Penetration studies generally involve sacrificing groups of animals at different time points to follow the drug-distribution process. Using a multiphoton microscopy technique on a preparation of brain tissue slices, Mark Saltzman and his colleagues at Cornell University (Ithaca, New York) obtained rapid results, sacrificing fewer animals. Notably, their technique identifies slow diffusion as the main cause of poor penetration of BDNF, a neurotrophin drug potentially useful for treating multiple sclerosis, Huntington disease, glioblastoma and the like. This knowledge guided the authors in the design of a neurotrophin drug with improved transport properties.
