Blood-Brain Barrier Opening in Behaving Non-Human Primates via Focused Ultrasound with Systemically Administered Microbubbles.
Over the past fifteen years, focused ultrasound coupled with intravenously administered microbubbles (FUS) has been proven an effective, non-invasive technique to open the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in vivo. Here we show that FUS can safely and effectively open the BBB at the basal ganglia and thalamus in alert non-human primates (NHP) while they perform a behavioral task. The BBB was successfully opened in 89% of cases at the targeted brain regions of alert NHP with an average volume of opening 28% larger than prior anesthetized FUS procedures. Safety (lack of edema or microhemorrhage) of FUS was also improved during alert compared to anesthetized procedures. No physiological effects (change in heart rate, motor evoked potentials) were observed during any of the procedures. Furthermore, the application of FUS did not disrupt reaching behavior, but in fact improved performance by decreasing reaction times by 23 ms, and significantly decreasing touch error by 0.76 mm on average.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America.
Matthew E
ME
Downs
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America.
Amanda
A
Buch
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America.
Maria Eleni
ME
Karakatsani
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America.|Department of Radiology, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America.
Elisa E
EE
Konofagou
Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America.
Vincent P
VP
Ferrera
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D001812:Blood-Brain Barrier; D045423:Microbubbles; D011323:Primates; D014463:Ultrasonography