The Medical Applications of Nanomaterials in the Central Nervous System

The restriction of the blood–brain barrier poses a great challenge to manage central nervous system disorders. Nanomaterials showed promising application in the delivery of various kinds of drugs to the brain, including small chemical drugs, peptides and proteins, and genes. In this chapter, we review the most widely used nanomaterials in brain targeting delivery, such as natural materials, anionic and neutral polymers, cationic polymers, dendrimers, metal-based nanoparticles, and carbon-based nanomaterials. We also describe the strategies to modify these nanomaterials to facilitate brain targeting delivery and the treatment outcomes using these strategies.