Swarms of nanoparticles which are 15,000 times smaller than a pinhead may be able to deliver vital drugs to the brain, offering new hope to patients in the early stages of a stroke.

The research, carried out at The University of Manchester, shows that tiny vesicles called liposomes, just 100 nanometres in diameter can translocate through the damaged blood brain barrier following stroke.

And that may offer a way to get vital drugs to the lesions to stop further damage.

The brain is the only organ to have its own security system: a tightly packed network of blood vessels and barriers that allow the entry of essential nutrients while blocking other potentially harmful substances.

However, the barrier also blocks lifesaving drugs, rendering it difficult to treat a range of conditions including stroke.

Now the research carried out on mice and published today in the journal ACS Nano, shows that liposomes can potentially transport life-saving drugs across the barrier.

The researchers were able to generate microscopic pictures of the brain tissue using state of the art imaging techniques, showing the nanomaterial is a viable transporter.

Up to now, scientists haven’t yet devised a reliable way to deliver drugs to damaged brain efficiently – one of the last frontiers in medical science.

But now the team show that following a stroke event, liposomes are able to penetrate the brain by being transported across the tightly packed endothelial cells by using pouch-like structures known as caveolae.