How to Use blood-brain barrier in a Sentence

blood-brain barrier

noun
  • For instance, the tiniest pieces can cross the blood-brain barrier.
    — Paul Smaglik, Discover Magazine, 4 Feb. 2025
  • Most drugs can’t pass through the blood-brain barrier, a living border wall around the brain.
    — Megan Molteni, Wired, 15 Apr. 2020
  • But our brains are designed to keep things out, through something called the blood-brain barrier.
    — Megha Satyanarayana, Scientific American, 14 Feb. 2025
  • At the base of the brain sits a dense constellation of cells known as the blood-brain barrier.
    — Donna Jackson Nakazawa, Wired, 21 Jan. 2020
  • In fact, some parts of the brain don’t have a traditional blood-brain barrier at all.
    — Yasemin Saplakoglu, Quanta Magazine, 20 June 2023
  • The particles were also able to cross the blood-brain barrier.
    — Kaitlin Sullivan, NBC News, 16 Sep. 2024
  • This occurs when cancer cells migrate through the blood-brain barrier.
    — Charna Flam, People.com, 7 Mar. 2025
  • The caffeine in coffee tightens up the blood-brain barrier and can decrease how much of the drug makes it to your brain.
    — Courtney Southwick, Health, 23 July 2024
  • Some forms of magnesium may not readily cross the blood-brain barrier.
    — Allison Herries, Verywell Health, 10 Sep. 2024
  • The team also found that clusterin readily attached to the cells that form the blood-brain barrier.
    — Emily Willingham, Scientific American, 8 Dec. 2021
  • In crossing the blood-brain barrier, caffeine can act on the central nervous system.
    — Science & Food, Discover Magazine, 29 Sep. 2015
  • There are even species whose neurotoxic compounds get through our own blood-brain barrier, a feat that no wasp venom can yet achieve.
    — Christie Wilcox, Scientific American, 1 May 2017
  • The procedure to open the blood-brain barrier only takes four minutes and is performed while the patient is awake.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 3 May 2023
  • These proteins are usually flushed into the bloodstream through the blood-brain barrier.
    — Devika Rao, TheWeek, 26 June 2026
  • Due to the blood-brain barrier, biomarkers couldn’t be found in sufficient quantities.
    — Tribune News Service, oregonlive, 25 Nov. 2021
  • What leukotriene modifiers such as Singulair are not supposed to do is cross the blood-brain barrier.
    — Joanna Thompson, Scientific American, 19 Jan. 2024
  • This structure is called the blood-brain barrier, or BBB for short, and the drug should not have been able to pass through it.
    — Daniela Kaufer, Scientific American, 23 Apr. 2021
  • That’s because the brain is surrounded by a semipermeable membrane called the blood-brain barrier.
    — Kaitlin Sullivan, NBC News, 16 Sep. 2024
  • This is also the first study that shows how quickly the blood-brain barrier closes after being opened by the ultrasound.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 3 May 2023
  • Unlike most pathogens, Toxoplasma can cross the blood-brain barrier and invade brain cells.
    — Bill Sullivan, Discover Magazine, 12 Aug. 2024
  • The blood-brain barrier is comprised of very tightly connected cells lining the inside of blood vessels.
    — Richard J. Price, The Conversation, 15 Oct. 2025
  • Scientists around the world engineered viruses that could slide through the blood-brain barrier that walls off our most vital organ from the rest of the body.
    — Jason Mast, STAT, 12 May 2026
  • This tipped the scientists off that there must be some molecule from the cancerous cells that can cross the blood-brain barrier and inflict good, not harm.
    — New Atlas, 29 Jan. 2026
  • The powerful blood-brain barrier, the thinking goes, keeps the organ mostly free from outside invaders.
    — Yasemin Saplakoglu, WIRED, 5 Jan. 2025
  • Sleep apnea can break down the blood-brain barrier that keeps bacteria from reaching the brain and doing permanent damage.
    — Sara Novak, Discover Magazine, 5 July 2022
  • Inflammatory molecules can cross the blood-brain barrier and cause damage to the brain.
    — Sarah Bence, Verywell Health, 6 Nov. 2025
  • Better yet, two of them were already known to cross the blood-brain barrier, so could potentially reach the cells that Parkinson's kills.
    — John Timmer, Ars Technica, 2 Sep. 2017
  • But a feverish quality also suggests a work of art that has crossed the blood-brain barrier and infected its audience.
    — Lewis Gordon, Vulture, 1 May 2024
  • Too much inflammation can also break down the protective wall known as the blood-brain barrier and lead to brain swelling, seizures or spread of infection.
    — Dr. Minali Nigam and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, 29 July 2020
  • Then, the ultrasound device agitates the bubbles with sound waves, creating gaps in the blood-brain barrier.
    — Lizzy Lawrence, STAT, 12 May 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'blood-brain barrier.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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