Recent advances of focused ultrasound induced blood-brain barrier opening for clinical applications of neurodegenerative diseases

Pengxuan Zhao; Tiantian Wu; Yu Tian; Jia You; Xinwu Cui

doi:10.1016/j.addr.2024.115323

Recent advances of focused ultrasound induced blood-brain barrier opening for clinical applications of neurodegenerative diseases

Adv Drug Deliv Rev. 2024 Apr 21:209:115323. doi: 10.1016/j.addr.2024.115323. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Pengxuan Zhao¹, Tiantian Wu², Yu Tian³, Jia You², Xinwu Cui⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medical Ultrasound, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China; School of Pharmacy, Hainan Provincial Key Laboratory for Research and Development of Tropical Herbs, International Joint Research Center of Human-machine Intelligent Collaborative for Tumor Precision Diagnosis and Treatment of Hainan Province, Hainan Medical University, Haikou 571199, China.
² School of Pharmacy, Hainan Provincial Key Laboratory for Research and Development of Tropical Herbs, International Joint Research Center of Human-machine Intelligent Collaborative for Tumor Precision Diagnosis and Treatment of Hainan Province, Hainan Medical University, Haikou 571199, China.
³ Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd., Shanghai 200000, China.
⁴ Department of Medical Ultrasound, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China. Electronic address: cuixinwu@live.cn.

PMID: 38653402
DOI: 10.1016/j.addr.2024.115323

Abstract

With the aging population on the rise, neurodegenerative disorders have taken center stage as a significant health concern. The blood-brain barrier (BBB) plays an important role to maintain the stability of central nervous system, yet it poses a formidable obstacle to delivering drugs for neurodegenerative disease therapy. Various methods have been devised to confront this challenge, each carrying its own set of limitations. One particularly promising noninvasive approach involves the utilization of focused ultrasound (FUS) combined with contrast agents-microbubbles (MBs) to achieve transient and reversible BBB opening. This review provides a comprehensive exploration of the fundamental mechanisms behind FUS/MBs-mediated BBB opening and spotlights recent breakthroughs in its application for neurodegenerative diseases. Furthermore, it addresses the current challenges and presents future perspectives in this field.

Keywords: Blood-brain barrier; Cavitation effect; Clinical applications; Focused ultrasound; Microbubbles; Neurodegenerative diseases.

Publication types

Review