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Posted on Oct 14, 2002, 6 a.m.
By Bill Freeman
Adding vitamin-C to some drugs may help to improve the treatments available to people suffering from diseases that effect the brain, say a team of Italian researchers. The blood-brain barrier helps to protect the brain from potentially harmful molecules by filtering them out of the blood. However, Stefano Manfredini and his colleagues found that Vitamin-C effectively fast tracks certain drugs through the barrier, as well as enabling drugs normally denied entry by the blood-brain barrier to gain access to the brain.
Adding vitamin-C to some drugs may help to improve the treatments available to people suffering from diseases that effect the brain, say a team of Italian researchers. The blood-brain barrier helps to protect the brain from potentially harmful molecules by filtering them out of the blood. However, Stefano Manfredini and his colleagues found that Vitamin-C effectively fast tracks certain drugs through the barrier, as well as enabling drugs normally denied entry by the blood-brain barrier to gain access to the brain. Manfredini believes that vitamin-C could be used to smuggle drugs capable of treating illnesses as diverse as viral infections, neurodegenerative diseases, and epilepsy. The blood brain barrier is a major obstacle to scientists as many drugs are unable to pass through it.
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by The Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk) on the 31st January 2002
