Researchers at the University of Eastern Finland have identified a transporter protein with the potential to open new avenues for improving creatine delivery into the brain and for developing other therapies targeting the central nervous system.

Delivering drugs to the brain remains one of the greatest challenges in pharmaceutical research, as the blood-brain barrier prevents many compounds from entering the central nervous system. In a recent study, researchers at the University of Eastern Finland investigated the use of the sodium-dependent multivitamin transporter (SMVT) for targeting creatine derivatives to the brain. SMVT naturally transports several vitamins and other essential nutrients in the body.

Creatine plays a central role in cellular energy metabolism. Creatine Transporter Deficiency Syndrome (CTDS) is a rare but severe neurological disorder in which impaired transport of creatine into the brain leads to a range of developmental disabilities. The study demonstrated that SMVT can serve as an alternative transporter for creatine derivatives. This finding offers a new approach to improving creatine availability in the brain when conventional creatine transport is insufficient.

The implications of the findings extend beyond creatine. According to the researchers, exploiting SMVT may also enable more efficient delivery of other therapeutic compounds into the brain. This could facilitate the development of more precisely targeted treatments for neurological disorders.

“The most significant outcome of this study is that SMVT proved to be a suitable transporter for delivering different types of compounds into the brain. The blood-brain barrier is not merely a barrier; it also contains transport systems that allow essential nutrients to reach the brain. Rather than trying to bypass the blood-brain barrier, our goal is to take advantage of its own transport mechanisms to deliver compounds into the brain. Our results suggest that SMVT could offer a promising new opportunity for this purpose,” says Associate Professor Kristiina Huttunen, who led the study.

The research was carried out at the School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland, as part of the doctoral research projects of Adéla Králová and Ville Kuorikoski. The work was supported by a Proof of Concept (PoC) grant from the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation, aimed at promoting the translation of research findings into practical applications.

The results were published in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience.