title: The progressive role of acoustic cavitation for non-invasive therapies, contrast imaging and blood-tumor permeability enhancement.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Drug delivery pertaining to acoustic cavitation generated from ultrasonic (US) irradiation is advantageous for devising smarter and more advanced therapeutics. The aim is to showcase microbubbles as drug carriers and robust theranostic for non-invasive therapies across diverse biomedical disciplines, highlighting recent technologies in this field for overcoming the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to treat cancers and neurological disorders.
  
  
  METHODS
  This article reviews work on the optimized tuning of ultrasonic parameters, sonoporation, transdermal and responsive drug delivery, acoustic cavitation in vasculature and oncology, contrast imaging for real-time magnification of cell-microbubble dynamics and biomolecular targeting. Scholarly literature was sought through database search on key terminology, latest topics, reputable experts and established journals over the last five years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cavitation offers immense promise in overcoming current diffusion and convection limitations for treating skull/brain/vascular/tissue injuries and ablating tumors to minimize chronic/acute effects. Since stable cavitation facilitates the restoration of US-opened BBB and the modulation of drug concentration, US equipment with programmable imaging modality and sensitivity are envisaged to create safer miniaturized devices for personalized care. Due to differing biomedical protocols with regard to specific medical conditions, quantitative and qualitative controls are mandatory before translation to real-life clinical applications can be accomplished.
authors.affiliation: a School of Chemical Engineering , The University of Adelaide , Adelaide , Australia.|b Faculty of Health and Life Sciences , Coventry University , West Midlands , UK.
authors.forename: Moom Sinn
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Aw
authors.affiliation: c Faculty of Health and Life Sciences , Coventry University , West Midlands , UK.
authors.forename: Larysa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Paniwnyk
authors.affiliation: a School of Chemical Engineering , The University of Adelaide , Adelaide , Australia.
authors.forename: Dusan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Losic
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics; D001812:Blood-Brain Barrier / Q000378:metabolism; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000737:chemistry; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D006801:Humans; D045423:Microbubbles; D010539:Permeability; D014465:Ultrasonics / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D004337:Drug Carriers
keywords: Acoustic cavitation; blood-brain barrier; cancer; contrasts imaging; drug delivery; non-invasiveness; sonoporation