INTRODUCTION: The incidence of Central Nervous System (CNS) disorders, including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, stroke, and malignancies, has risen significantly in recent decades, contributing to millions of deaths annually. Efficacious treatment of these disorders requires medicines targeting the brain. The Blood-brain Barrier (BBB) poses a formidable challenge to effective drug delivery to the brain, hindering progress in CNS therapeutics. This review explores the latest developments in nanoparticulate carriers, highlighting their potential to overcome BBB limitations. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate and summarise the critical factors and pathways in the nanoparticle- based CNS targeted drug delivery. METHODS: An extensive literature search was conducted, comprising the initial development of nanoparticle- based CNS-targeted drug delivery approaches to the latest advancements using various online search tools. RESULTS: The properties of nanoparticles, such as type of nanoparticles, size, shape, surface charge, hydrophobicity, and surface functionalisation, along with properties of the BBB during normal and pathological conditions and their impact on the delivery of nanoparticles across the BBB, are identified and discussed here. CONCLUSION: Important properties and pathways that determine the penetration of nanoparticles across the CNS are reviewed in this article, along with recent advances in the field.