Focused ultrasound for opening blood-brain barrier and drug delivery monitored with positron emission tomography

Wejdan M Arif; Philip H Elsinga; Carmen Gasca-Salas; Michel Versluis; Raul Martínez-Fernández; Rudi A J O Dierckx; Ronald J H Borra; Gert Luurtsema

doi:10.1016/j.jconrel.2020.05.020

Focused ultrasound for opening blood-brain barrier and drug delivery monitored with positron emission tomography

J Control Release. 2020 Aug 10:324:303-316. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2020.05.020. Epub 2020 May 16.

Authors

Wejdan M Arif¹, Philip H Elsinga², Carmen Gasca-Salas³, Michel Versluis⁴, Raul Martínez-Fernández³, Rudi A J O Dierckx², Ronald J H Borra², Gert Luurtsema⁵

Affiliations

¹ University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Hanzeplein 1, 9713 GZ Groningen, the Netherlands; King Saud University, College of Applied Medical Science, Department of Radiological Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
² University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Hanzeplein 1, 9713 GZ Groningen, the Netherlands.
³ Centre for Integrative Neuroscience AC, HM Puerta del Sur, CEU San Pablo University, Madrid, Spain; Centro de Investigacion Biomedica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas, Madrid, Spain.
⁴ Multimodality Medical Imaging M3i Group, Technical Medical (TechMed) Center, University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands; Physics of Fluids Group, Technical Medical (TechMed) Center, University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands.
⁵ University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Hanzeplein 1, 9713 GZ Groningen, the Netherlands. Electronic address: g.luurtsema@umcg.nl.

PMID: 32428519
DOI: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2020.05.020

Abstract

Focused ultrasound (FUS) is a minimally-invasive technology used for treatment of many diseases, including diseases related to the colon, uterus, prostate, and brain. Although it has been mainly used for ablative procedures, the ability of FUS to open the blood-brain barrier (BBB) presents a promising new application. However, the mechanism of BBB opening by FUS remains unclear. This review focuses on the use of FUS to open the BBB for enhancing drug delivery and investigating how Positron Emission Tomography (PET) provides insight into the underlying mechanism.

Keywords: Blood-brain barrier transporters; FUS; Microbubbles; Radiotracers.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Blood-Brain Barrier*
Drug Delivery Systems
Female
Humans
Male
Microbubbles
Pharmaceutical Preparations*
Positron-Emission Tomography

Substances

Pharmaceutical Preparations