国际治疗诊断学杂志

Acoustic Cluster Therapy for Enhancing Blood-Brain Barrier Permeability

Andreas Aslund

The Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB) is a key barrier to medicine
delivery for brain illnesses, and there is currently no standardized way
to get through it. Focused ultrasound in combination with gas-filled
micro bubbles is one way for disrupting the BBB locally and
transiently. The micro bubbles utilized, on the other hand, were
designed for ultrasound imaging rather than BBB disruption. The
potential innovative Acoustic Cluster Therapy (ACT), which has
recently been used in combination successfully treat subcutaneous
tumors of human prostate cancer in mice, is described here.
Electrostatic interactions lead to the conjugation of micro bubbles to
liquid oil micro droplets in ACT. The micro droplet phase transforms
into a bigger bubble that transiently lodges in the microvasculature
when activated in an ultrasonic field. Further insolation causes the
triggered bubble's volume to oscillate, resulting in biomechanical
consequences that improve BBB permeability. With an acoustic power
5-10 times lower than that used for traditional micro bubbles, ACT
was able to securely and temporarily permeabilize the BBB and
successfully transfer small and big compounds into the brain.