Question

A pharmaceutical company is developing a drug to treat neurological trauma. The drug delivery team has either a lipid-soluble version of the drug or a protein version of the drug. Which one is more likely to have an affect? Explain your answer.

please try and answer in 10 sentences. nothing too long and as simplified as possible.

Answer 1

Neurological trauma is injury that affects the brain, spinal cord and nerves. There is a blood-brain barrier and spine-blood barrier that prevents entry of many substances into the brain and spine. Water soluble drugs have difficulty in passing through these barriers as they are hydrophilic. Hence they require facilitated diffusion or active transport mechanism to pass through the barrier membrane. Active transport required input of energy from glucose metabolism and oxygen in brain, which is expensive to the brain/spinal cord. Lipophilic drugs, on the other hand, passes easily through the membrane by passive diffusion as they are not repelled by the hydrophobic layer of plasma membrane. Hence, it is better to design a lipid soluble version of drug for treating the neurological trauma.