BBB Flashcards
What does the BBB do?
At simplest, separates brain-fluid compartments blood from extracellular fluid of brain (cerebrospinal fluid and interstitial fluid)
It shields brain from anything / any changes in plasma that the brain doesn’t want
Why do you not want XS neurotransmitters in the brain and give an example?
Reduce seizure risk
Don’t want spikes and troughs in neurotransmitters like glutamic acid- you want the brain to be controlled and tightly regulated.
Glutamic acid levels increase after a protein meal.
What was Goldmann’s experiment (discovery of BBB)?
Injected Typan blue IV which stained the body and not the CNS. When injected intrathecally, the body was unstained and the CNS was stained.
What are the 3 reasons why delivering drugs to the brain is a problem for the pharma industry?
- Failures treating brain tumours and neurodegeneration- less than 5% of drugs trialled have any clinical benefit as the majority do not pass the BBB
- Costly
- Pharma must not only develop drugs for disease, but ways to cross the BBB
What are the 5 reasons why we have a BBB?
- Ion regulation for optimal neural signalling. Potassium is most important followed by sodium and calcium. Nerve cells will only fire action potentials with certain ion level thresholds.
- Molecular traffic. Keeps toxins out to prevent cell death in the brain.
- Low protein in the ECF compared to the blood. Protein is needed for cell proliferation. We don’t want over proliferation in the brain as the new cells will press on the neurons resulting in tumours. Neurons cannot divide.
- Preserves neurotransmitter signalling; separates CNS transmitters form peripheral transmitters- you don’t want e.g. glutamic acid, adrenaline and NA firing random action potentials in the brain
- ‘Silent’ immune surveillance. Keeps leukocytes out, to limit inflammation. The brain has its own immune system with astroglia. In the peripheral system, the immune system induces inflammation and oedema and you do not want that in the confined skull space.
You can have regions in the brain without a barrier. What are these called and why is it useful?
Circumventricular organs
e.g. posterior pituitary
Neurones want to secrete hormones directly into the blood e.g. growth hormone, prolactin and melatonin
Neurones want to sample the plasma to detect ion levels or presence of toxins
What are the 4 key areas of difference in the levels of compounds and pH in the brain vs blood?
- Lower K+ 2.9 mM
Allows neurons to achieve a lower resting potential (-100 mV vs -90 mV in peripheral). Meaning they are unlikely to spontaneously fire. In the periphery this causes twitches, in the CNS it causes seizures. When people have seizures, in these focal areas potassium levels are higher. In children with fever, they can have febrile reversible seizures as the BBB opens up a bit more and ions get in
- Slightly more acidic than plasma 7.3 vs 7.4
Speeds up the Na/K pump’s ability to repolarise and restore ion concentraions (following action potential)
- Low protein (albumin) 6 g/dL vs 0.02 g/dL
Preventing cell proliferation, water retention and brain oedema. Water tends to follow protein and you do not want extra water in enclosed skull
- Low calcium (1.2 mM) and glutamate (0.5 micromol)
Both are key drivers of ‘excitotoxicity’ in nerve cells. Can cause irreversible neurodegeneration (AD) where membranes become more permeable and enzymes break down the cell. Strategy of treating AD- block glutamate receptors
Why is there a rich blood supply in the brain?
The requirements for oxygen and glucose is 7 times higher than other organs.
If unravelled, capillaries in the brain would be very low and have a high SA.
They are so dense and close together and are wide enough just to let a RBC through and nothing else.
The rich capillary network is need for constant supply of nutrients.
What is the choroid plexus and what does it do?
Cells that produce CSF in lateral, 3rd and 4th ventricles of the brain. they also act as a lymphatic system for the brain to clear out toxins (filtration)
What the the 3 different barrier types in BBB?
- Physical barrier
- Transport barrier
- Metabolic barrier
What is the physical barrier of the BBB?
The point at which the endothelial cells join, there is a specialised set of proteins that zip them together (tight junction proteins) so endothelial cells cannot be separated
What cells are critical for tight junction formation?
Astrocytes - possible they secrete factors from end feet
They are not the barrier, they just sit very close to it and help make it.
If you start losing astrocytes, you lose tight junctions and similarly, if you put astrocytes elsewhere in the body, tight junctions will start to form
What does the basement membrane do?
Anchor endothelial cells and tells them which side is the brain side
What is the other type of junction found throughout the body but not in BBB?
Adherens junctions- simple linking of cells using cadherin
What are tight junctions made up of?
Complex protein structure unique to the brain
Includes proteins such as occludin, claudin and zonula occludens (ZO)
What cells are susceptible to brain tumours?
Why are neurons not?
Astrocytes and glia
Neurones are post mitotic so cannot divide
How can you measure how tight these tight junctions are?
Through how many ions e.g. sodium can get through
In resistance (Ohms cm^2)
What is the resistance of a muscle capillary vs brain capillary?
40 Ohms cm^2
8000 Ohms cm^2
What kind of drugs can get through the BBB and give examples?
- Small (<400 Da) and lipid soluble (Log P > 1)
- Drugs related to amphetamines / ecstasy and cannabinoids
- Legal highs developed as small very lipophilic molecules. (no therapeutic indication as they disrupt normal function of nerve cells at level of the synapse)
- Oxygen, alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, opiates, anaesthetics
What % of small molecule drugs can pass through BBB?
2%
What is the transport barrier
What are the 3 types of these barriers?
Efflux transporters use ATP to prevent some lipid soluble compounds entering the CNS (generally anything > 3/400 Da)
- P-glycoprotein blocks out the most drugs
- BCRP (breast cancer resistance protein)
- MRP (multi-drug resistance proteins) range of these, 1, 2, 4,5,7
(MRP 1 moves things in opposite direction – keeps things in brain)
Prevent drugs (chemotherapy ABX, statins) getting through
How do efflux transporters know to kick a compound out?
They don’t recognise certain groups, they only use lipophilicity and drug size to see if it will pass through
What is a disadvantage of the efflux transporters and how is this overcome?
They are only as good as how many there are, however they are all able to up-regulate their expression if exposed to more of a compound and then produce more transporters.
What is the metabolic barrier?
What is the main metabolic enzyme in BBB?
The capability of the BBB to start metabolising drugs, even as they pass through the capillary endothelial cells before they get to the neurons
- CYP450 is major one in BBB
- Some metabolic enzymes are related to disease
- CYP metabolise a vast array of compounds, including centrally acting drugs, neurotoxins and neurotransmitters. E.g. 2E1 breaks down alcohol
They can break down compounds to give to the brain as well:
- They break down endogenous compounds, (e.g. arachidonic acid, etc),
- So endothelial cells can use the products themselves
- Or to pass metabolised contents to the neurons. (neurons rather have lactate than glucose) – like a baby needing broken down food
- CYPs can be upregulated if exposed to pollutants
What are the metabolic enzymes found in the astrocyte end feet?
CYP2J2 and 2U1
What are the main metabolic enzymes found in the neurones?
CYP46A1
and 2E1 is exclusive to neurone
What mutated metabolic enzyme is linked to dementia?
Mutated CYP2J2 (which usually metabolises arachidonic acid to active vasodilators to increase blood flow in the brain) linked to dementia
What kind of transporters take up things into the brain?
Uptake transporters, unidirectional
Different transporters for different types of amino acids
Where are uptake transporters located and why?
Blood side as they are polarised
What are 4 examples of uptake transporters?
Glut 1 - glucose
Mct1 - lactate
Lat1 - leucine (neutral amino acid)
Tfr -transferrin
What is transferrin?
Transferrin is a peptide used for regulating iron. It is large, gets through by aid of the TFr iron carrier
What are the 5 ways of transport across the BBB and what do they move across?
- Paracellular aqueous pathway
- Very small water-soluble agents e.g. ions - Transcellular lipophilic pathway - Small lipid soluble agents
- Transport proteins
- Carrier mediated uptake of many essential water-soluble compounds (glucose, amino acids, small peptides) – clinical significance of delivery of L-dopa in PD - Receptor meditated transcytosis (RMT)
- Specific uptake of larger molecules (transferrin, insulin, lipoproteins, cytokines. Hijacked by viruses - Adsorptive mediated transcytosis (AMT)
- Non-specific uptake of larger (+) charged proteins e.g. albumin
How can receptor mediated transcytosis be used as a possible drug therapy, especially in AD?
Possible drug therapy where you hijack inactive virus with drug to trigger this type of mechanism
Can be bi-directional as it has been found to remove amyloid beta peptide from the brain, possible AD therapy