Jornal de Pesquisa do Cérebro

A Novel Modell of Brain Cortex Water Metabolism Based on the Nanofluidic-domain Theory and its Biomedical Implications

Abstract

Ernst Titovets* and Fr. Skoriny Str

Brain Water Metabolism (BWM) is involved in intercellular communication, transit of substrates, gases, drug delivery, spreading of malignant tumors. Various neurological conditions are accompanied by impaired BWM (e.g. idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus, syringomyelia, migraine, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, etc.) The Extracellular Fluid (ECF), surrounding the neurocytes and the glia, circulates in the nanodimentional Extracellular Space (ECS), where its flow obeys the slip-flow principles of nanofluidics. The conventional view argues, however, that the nanodimentional ECS presents a diffusion barrier where convention is prohibited. A computer model has been developed revealing new features of BWM. The references are also presented, listing the AQP4-targeted drugs to be used in the therapy of brain edema. The research results may find their use in wide areas of neurobiological research, the drug therapy of water-metabolism-disorder conditions and targeted drug delivery.