New research suggests that delivering cannabidiol (CBD) through the nasal cavity using nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) may improve its effectiveness in treating epilepsy.
Published in Molecular Pharmaceutics and conducted by researchers at Dalian University of Technology, the study aimed to bypass limitations of oral medications—such as first-pass metabolism and poor penetration through the blood-brain barrier—by formulating CBD into nanoparticles designed for intranasal delivery.
These CBD-NLCs were engineered to be just under 80 nanometers in size and showed high stability, entrapment efficiency, and drug loading capacity.
When tested in rats, the nasal absorption rate of CBD-NLCs was over four times higher than that of unformulated CBD. Notably, the brain-targeting efficiency of the intranasal CBD-NLCs was nearly 278% greater than that of CBD administered intravenously. In seizure-induced rats, the formulation also significantly delayed seizure onset and reduced seizure severity scores. Researchers say they believe these results will carry over to humans, but would like to see more testing.
The findings indicate that intranasal delivery of CBD via NLCs could represent a more effective alternative to traditional oral or intravenous routes for epilepsy treatment, offering both enhanced brain delivery and improved seizure control.
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