oa Editorial [Hot topic: An Overview on the Design, Development, Characterization and Applications of Novel Nanomedicines for Brain Targeting (Guest Editor: Eliana B. Souto)]

The 2011 inaugural issue of Current Nanosciences is dedicated to the memory of Professor Rui Manuel Ramos Morgado who, if among us, would turn 78 years old this upcoming May 10th. As posthumous acknowledgement and recognition of his outstanding performance as Full Professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences of University Fernando Pessoa, an exceptional scientific work is now published focusing on the emerging field of Novel Nanomedicines for Brain Targeting. During his entire life, Professor Rui M. R. Morgado has inspired many Students and Scholars in the field of Pharmaceutical Technology to pursue their academic and scientific careers a step further, making him an exceptional individual worthy of our admiration, emulation, and homage being paid in these pages. An enjoyable element of publishing this tribute to him comes from the key element of Brain Targeting. As a part of the central nervous system, the brain is protected by the blood brain barrier (BBB) which controls its homeostasis and transport of endogenous and exogenous molecules, by controlling their selective and specific uptake, efflux, and metabolism. Thus, some pharmacologically active drug molecules have difficulties in reaching the brain because they are unable to cross the BBB. The drugs existing in the pharmaceutical market to treat brain diseases, such as stroke, depression, schizophrenia, epilepsy, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, migraine headache, and also other brain inflammations and infections, show a lack of selectivity against neuronal targets, mainly due to the poor penetration of BBB. Failure of the treatment is often reported. Therefore, the scientific research in this field has been focused on the development of strategies to target and deliver several drugs to the brain. These include both carrier- and receptor-mediated transport systems. This special issue will provide a theoretical and practical guidance for academic scientists and students, and also researchers in developing novel drug delivery systems - Nanomedicines - to the brain. The biology and physiology of BBB, the evolution of brain therapy, targeting and delivery will be briefly discussed, and also how to select the most suitable system to obtain stable and scalable formulations for achieving desired pharmacokinetic profiles. A special manuscript is devoted to inflammatory neurological disorders and in a more detail, the several approaches for delivering drugs locally and systemically using carriermediated transport systems and receptor-mediated non-viral systems. This hot special issue gathers contributions from worldwide experts in the field of brain delivery and targeting from Portugal, India, USA, Japan, China, Canada, and Italy. Recognised acknowledgements are also addressed to all the contributors, who have devoted their efforts in undertaking some of their finest work to a timetable that has been quite challenging, and to the manuscript reviewers for their help in making this issue a success. My sincere thanks to Prof. Dr. Maria Jose Sa, neurologist at Hospital Sao Joao in Porto and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences, for kindly accepted the invitation to contribute with her expertise in Neurological Diseases, allowing opening this issue with a comprehensive lecture in the field. I hope this special issue will please readers and inspire them with future strategies for exploiting this exciting research field.