Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease affecting roughly 10 million people worldwide per year. The dopamine producing neurons in the substantia nigra degenerate, resulting in the inability to control motivation and movement. This makes daily life increasingly difficult. The primary treatment used is L-DOPA; however, delivery of L-DOPA is not efficient, as a small percentage of the drug passes into the brain while the rest is metabolized by dopamine decarboxylase (DDC). The metabolism of L-DOPA in the bloodstream prior to passing the blood brain barrier (BBB) causes a myriad of side effects. We are evaluating the utility of a drug delivery platform that conjugates vitamin B12 to dopamine derivatives. Since vitamin B12 is essential for cognitive function and is known to pass the BBB, we anticipate that vitamin B12 can successfully ferry drugs across the BBB. We examined the ability of a fluorescent vitamin B12 derivative to pass the BBB in athymic nude mice. Mice were injected with the fluorescent cobalamin and the temporal change in fluorescence intensity of the brain was measured ex vivo. We found that the fluorescent cobalamin derivative accumulated in the brain in comparison to a control compound, which shows promise for the drug delivery system to be utilized to treat a variety of neurological diseases.

Cobalamin derivatives that cross the blood brain barrier for drug delivery

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

[Author Benefits](https://scimeetings.acs.org/?utm_source=pubs_content_marketing&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=0320_MCF_NPI_Launch_Spring_Homepage&ref=pubs_content_marketing)

[How to use SciMeetings](https://storage.googleapis.com/dl.morressier.com/acs/SciMeetings-ACSSpring2020-HowToGuide_M3020-Final.pdf)

[Frequently Asked Questions](https://storage.googleapis.com/dl.morressier.com/acs/SciMtng_ACSNMSp2020_FAQ_M3120_Final.pdf)

ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.