February 16, 2021 — Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology
Abstract
The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a major obstacle to treating several brain disorders. Focused ultrasound (FUS) in combination with intravascular microbubbles increases BBB permeability by opening tight junctions, creating endothelial cell openings, improving endocytosis and increasing transcytosis. Here we investigated whether combining FUS and microbubbles with transferrin receptor-targeting liposomes would result in enhanced delivery to the brain of post-natal rats compared with liposomes lacking the BBB-targeting moiety. For all animals, increased BBB permeability was observed after FUS treatment. A 40% increase in accumulation of transferrin receptor-targeting liposomes was observed in the FUS-treated hemisphere, whereas the isotype immunoglobulin G liposomes showed no increased accumulation. Confocal laser scanning microscopy of brain sections revealed that both types of liposomes were mainly observed in endothelial cells in the FUS-treated hemisphere. The results demonstrate that FUS and microbubble treatment combined with BBB-targeting liposomes could be a promising approach to enhance drug delivery to the brain.
Authors: Marieke Olsman 1; Viktoria Sereti 2; Melina Mühlenpfordt 1; Kasper Bendix Johnsen 2; Thomas Lars Andresen 2; Andrew James Urquhart 2; Catharina de Lange Davies 1
1 Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2 Technical University Denmark
Read full text at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2021.01.014
