Boosting Blood-Brain Barrier Crossing with a Mannosylated Nanocarrier

Nan-Nan Gu; Ping Wei; Jin-Hui Jiang; Jing-Hua Chen

doi:10.1007/s10118-026-3660-3

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Boosting Blood-Brain Barrier Crossing with a Mannosylated Nanocarrier

RESEARCH ARTICLE | Updated：2026-06-04

- Boosting Blood-Brain Barrier Crossing with a Mannosylated Nanocarrier
- Chinese Journal of Polymer Science Vol. 44, Issue 8, Pages: 2524-2533(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  a.School of Life Sciences and Health Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China
  b.Department of Polymeric Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China
- Author bio：
  
  weiping@jiangnan.edu.cn (P.W.)
  Jinhui_JIANG@alumni.tongji.edu.cn (J.H.J.)
  chenjinghua@jiangnan.edu.cn (J.H.C.)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s10118-026-3660-3
  CLC：
- Received：22 January 2026，
  
  Accepted：11 March 2026，
  
  Online First：30 May 2026，
  
  Published：15 August 2026
- Accepted：
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Gu, N. N.; Wei, P.; Jiang, J. H.; Chen, J. H. Boosting blood-brain barrier crossing with a mannosylated nanocarrier. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2026, 44, 2524–2533

Nan-Nan Gu, Ping Wei, Jin-Hui Jiang, et al. Boosting Blood-Brain Barrier Crossing with a Mannosylated Nanocarrier[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 44(8): 2524-2533.
Gu, N. N.; Wei, P.; Jiang, J. H.; Chen, J. H. Boosting blood-brain barrier crossing with a mannosylated nanocarrier. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2026, 44, 2524–2533 DOI： 10.1007/s10118-026-3660-3.

Nan-Nan Gu, Ping Wei, Jin-Hui Jiang, et al. Boosting Blood-Brain Barrier Crossing with a Mannosylated Nanocarrier[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 44(8): 2524-2533. DOI： 10.1007/s10118-026-3660-3.

摘要

A versatile mannosylated nanocarrier featuring blood-brain barrier (BBB) penetration and glioma cell targeting was designed. It enables the efficient delivery of a new aggregation-induced emission photosensitizer

thereby facilitating photodynamic therapy.

Abstract

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a major obstacle to the delivery of most therapeutic molecules to the brain

thereby preventing the effective treatment of numerous neurological disorders. However

this barrier can be bypassed by exploiting receptors and transport proteins that are highly expressed in the brain capillary endothelial cells (BCECs). Given the overexpression of glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1) at the BBB and in glioma cells

a mannosylated nanocarrier was developed as a potential dual-targeted drug delivery system to enhance BBB penetration

via

GLUT1-mediated transcytosis and improve drug accumulation in glioma cells

via

GLUT1-mediated endocytosis.

In vitro

physicochemical characterization revealed that the mannosylated nanocarrier presented a satisfactory size of 123 nm with a uniform distribution and high encapsulation efficiency for a ne

wly developed aggregation-induced emission (AIE) photosensitizer. Our findings revealed that this mannosylated nanocarrier represents a promising nanoplatform capable of crossing the BBB and enabling effective photodynamic therapy.

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references

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