Prospects of novel drug delivery systems in treating cerebral palsy

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a chronic disorder of children which have several etiologies. It is characterized by deficits in motor, sensory and cognition which occurs due to the injury to developing brain in uterus or soon after birth. Irrespective of several etiologies, neuro inflammation plays an important role in pathophysiology of brain in CP. About 2-3 cases per 1000 lives were found to be prevalent. The two variables that can be associated to CP are gestational age and birth weight. The prenatal, perinatal, preconception and postnatal categories are the identified risk factors. There is currently no effective treatment for CP, however drugs like anticonvulsants, antidepressants, antiinflammatories and benzodiazepines which offers their own characteristic side effects. On the other hand, phytoconstituents from ginger, astragalus etc., can also be used for treating CP which poses limitations like poor solubility, difficult to standardize etc. The development of remedies for the prevention and treatment of CP causing brain injuries opens up new possibilities with novel drug delivery systems (NDDS). Diverse systems of NDDS like nanoparticles, dendrimers, carbon nanotubes have been formulated to overcome the above said limitations of both synthetic and herbal drugs. This chapter focusses on various NDDS formulated against CP, their methods of preparations advantages and limitations.