title: Ultrasound-mediated drug delivery to the brain: principles, progress and prospects.
abstract: The blood-brain barrier (BBB) limits drug delivery to the central nervous system. When combined with microbubbles, ultrasound can transiently permeate blood vessels in the brain. This approach, which can be referred to as sonoporation or sonopermeabilization, holds significant promise for shuttling large therapeutic molecules, such as antibodies, growth factors and nanomedicine formulations, across the BBB. We here describe the basic principles of BBB permeation using ultrasound and microbubbles, and we summarize several (pre-) clinical studies showing the potential of BBB opening for improving the treatment of cancer and neurodegenerative disorders.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanomedicine and Theranostics, Institute for Experimental Molecular Imaging, RWTH Aachen University Clinic, Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Anshuman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dasgupta
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanomedicine and Theranostics, Institute for Experimental Molecular Imaging, RWTH Aachen University Clinic, Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Mengjiao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanomedicine and Theranostics, Institute for Experimental Molecular Imaging, RWTH Aachen University Clinic, Aachen, Germany; Department of Pharmaceutics, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Tarun
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ojha
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutics, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Department of Targeted Therapeutics, MIRA Institute for Biomedical Technology and Technical Medicine, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Gert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Storm
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanomedicine and Theranostics, Institute for Experimental Molecular Imaging, RWTH Aachen University Clinic, Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Fabian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kiessling
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanomedicine and Theranostics, Institute for Experimental Molecular Imaging, RWTH Aachen University Clinic, Aachen, Germany; Department of Pharmaceutics, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Department of Targeted Therapeutics, MIRA Institute for Biomedical Technology and Technical Medicine, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands. Electronic address: tlammers@ukaachen.de.
authors.forename: Twan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lammers
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply / Q000378:metabolism*; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D006801:Humans; D010539:Permeability; D000069453:Ultrasonic Waves