Introduction
Cognitive disorders are a category of mental health disorders that primarily affect learning, memory, perception, and problem solving, and include amnesia, dementia, and delirium that is marked by impairment of memory, confusion and inability to concentrate.
The size of the elderly population is increasing worldwide. Loss of memory, learning difficulties and a decrease in the ability to concentrate on a task characterizes cognitive impairment in the elderly. Cognitive impairment leads to a decrease in the quality of life and increases the risk of dementia and mortality. Additionally, it has significant social consequences, resulting in the loss of autonomy and independence and leading to an increased reliance on assistance.
NiedlFree’s technology and its relevance
There is no single, overarching cause for cognitive impairment. By the same token, there is no one ideal treatment or uniform outcome for patients seeking relief. What makes the treatment even more challenging is the presence of blood-brain barrier (BBB) that is a major hurdle for the drugs to penetrate into the brain where certain physical and physiological changes occur in cognitive disorders.
The technology at NiedlFree provides a solution for such challenges in delivering the chosen drugs into the cerebral area with an effective penetration through BBB administered as a nasal spray aimed at the olfactory region, a relatively small area within the nasal cavity. The formulation by NiedlFree is designed and delivered using a specific device taking into consideration of several factors such as small area of absorption hence need for increasing the retention time, effective penetration through BBB, increased CSF bio-availability for the given drug to be effective etc.
Currently NiedlFree is focusing on two areas of cognitive disorders i.e., Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s using three different molecules on different disease models.