cOFM (Figure 5) is used to conduct PK/PD preclinical studies in the animal brain. Access to the brain includes monitoring of the blood-brain barrier function and drug transport across the intact blood-brain barrier. cOFM allows taking a look behind the blood-brain barrier and assesses concentrations and effects of neuroactive substances directly in the targeted brain tissue.
The blood-brain barrier is a natural shield that protects the brain and limits the exchange of nutrients, metabolites and chemical messengers between blood and brain. The blood-brain barrier also prevents potential harmful substances from entering and damaging the brain. However, this highly effective barrier also prevents neuroactive substances from reaching appropriate targets. For researchers that develop neuroactive drugs, it is therefore of major interest to know whether and to what extent an active pharmaceutical component can pass the blood-brain barrier. Experiments have shown that the blood-brain barrier has fully reestablished 15 days after implantation of the cOFM probe in the brain of rats. The cOFM probe has been specially designed to avoid a reopening of the blood-brain barrier or causing additional trauma to the brain after implantation. cOFM enables continuous sampling of cerebral ISF with intact blood-brain barrier cOFM and thus allows continuous PK monitoring in brain tissue.