Cancer is one of the most common causes of death for children in Austria and is considered difficult to treat, especially in the brain. This fact is especially due to the inaccessibility of the tumors for drugs. In other words, theoretically effective medications often fail to reach the target site, which prevents successful treatment. In this context, the blood-brain barrier is an essential barrier. Active ingredients have to overcome this in order to produce a corresponding effect in the tumor. As a result, active substances must meet a number of physicochemical and biological parameters in order to ensure adequate penetration.

Together with doctors from the Vienna General Hospital, chemists under the direction of Prof. Wolfgang Buchberger at the JKU have now succeeded in determining various new therapeutic agents in the cerebrospinal fluid of cancer patients, which were taken from their cerebral ventricles. On the basis of these analyses, the validity of the established parameters and the applicability of approved drugs for the therapy of brain tumors could be evaluated. These studies pave the way for the development of new, effective drugs and also impressively demonstrate a meaningful method for assessing the permeation of the blood-brain barrier.

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