Drug Delivery Strategies in Neurological Disorders: Challenges and Opportunities

This book comprehensively reviews the recent progress in the pathogenesis and management approaches for neurological disorders. It focuses on understanding the molecular mechanism, pathology, and novel nanotechnology-based approaches against stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington’s disease, Multiple sclerosis, and Epilepsy. The book provides a basic understanding of the development and progression of these diseases, and recent pharmacotherapeutic approaches for their management. It also discusses challenges in drug development for neurological disorders, including preclinical models of disorders, the need for drugs to cross the blood-brain barrier, and a limited understanding of relevant pathophysiology. The book also focuses on different conventional and novel strategies for drug delivery in neurological disorders. Towards the end, the book reviews the applications of nanotechnology for the diagnosis of neurological disorders. One of the chapters is focused on the role of herbal actives in the treatment of neurological disorders. Finally, a chapter is included on nanotechnology-based approaches for the diagnosis of neurological disorders. This book is a useful resource for students and researchers of pharmaceutical sciences, life sciences, material sciences, and nano sciences.

Dr. Awanish Mishra is an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Research, Guwahati. He has earlier served as assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Research, Raebareli (2013-2020). He is focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms for the development of neurological diseases (like epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson's disease) and associated psychiatric comorbidities. He has added interest in how groundwater pollutants (arsenic, iron, copper, fluoride) and insecticides (especially organophosphates) are causing neurotoxicity and how natural bioactive molecules are useful in mitigating the same. In addition, he is also working on utilizing nanomedicine in neurological disorders and the evaluation of toxicological aspects of nanomedicine. He has more than 11 years of teaching experience in Pharmacology, Toxicology, Drug Metabolism, Pharmacological screening models of various diseases. He has contributed more than 55 peer-reviewed articles in international journals, authored 14 book chapters, and filed 3 patents. He is a member of many international scientific societies and organizations importantly, Indian Pharmacological Society, Indian Academy of Neuroscience, and Laboratory Animal Science Association of India and Editorial member to various prestigious journals like Metabolic Brain Disease (Springer Nature), etc.

Dr. Hitesh Kulhari is an assistant professor at the School of Nano Sciences, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar. Previously, he worked as associate professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology (Formulations) at the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Research, Guwahati. Dr. Kulhari received his PhD degree from RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia in the area of Nanomedicines. His research focuses on designing targeted drug delivery systems and pharmaceutical nanotechnology. He has published 71 research articles in peer-reviewed international journals, 14 book chapters and edited 01 book on pharmaceutical applications of dendrimers. Dr. Kulhari is a recipient of several awards and research grants including Prof CNR Rao Research Excellence Award in material science in 2015, INSPIRE faculty award from DST, New Delhi in 2015, and appreciation award from Cancer Research Foundation, India in 2020. He has more than 13 years of teaching and research experience in pharmaceutical technology, biopharmaceutics, and nanotechnology.