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Pulmonary embolism (PE) is the third-leading cause of death from cardiovascular disease. Currently, PE is treated via catheter-delivered, ultrasound-enhanced thrombolysis using side-fired, low-intensity ultrasound energy (0.5 W/cm2) at ∼2 MHz to reduce the required dose of thrombolytic drugs because of the enhanced drug penetration into the clot. However, several clinical studies have shown that the...
Focused ultrasound enhanced intranasal drug delivery (IN+FUS) is a unique noninvasive approach that utilizes the olfactory pathway to administer drugs directly to the brain. Our group has shown that IN+FUS provides a more homogenous distribution of molecules in the targeted region than intranasal delivery alone. The underlying mechanism of IN+FUS is believed to be due to the microbubble pump effect,...
H-scan is a new ultrasound (US) technique that images the relative size of acoustic scatterers. This modality relies on matching a model of pulse-echo formation to the mathematics of a class of Gaussian-weighted Hermite polynomials (GWHP). Parallel convolution filters using the second (GWH2) and eighth (GWH8) components are applied to the radio frequency US data to capture the low and high frequency...
Most chemotherapeutics (CTs) are delivered systemically, causing nausea, hair loss, fatigue and a compromised immune system. Biocompatible in situ forming implants (ISFIs) are drug delivery vehicles which are injected as a liquid before solidifying in tissues and ultimately breaking down. By dissolving CTs in an ISFI solution, they can be injected directly to the tumour site and released in a controllable...
Blood-brain and blood-tumor barriers (BBB and BTB) constitute a major obstacle to the transport of therapeutics in brain tumors. While several studies have demonstrated the potential of focused ultrasound (FUS) to disrupt transiently the BBB/BTB and improve drug delivery, there is a lack of fundamental understanding of the impact of this method on the pharmacokinetics of anticancer agents in the brain...
The standard-of-care for evaluating breast tumor response to chemotherapeutic drug treatment remains the assessment of a tumor size change weeks after therapy begins. However, the tumor microenvironment is known to change drastically before any detectable change in physical size manifests. New clinical tools that can help determine early tumor response are urgently needed so we can both maximize the...
In the United States of America, the Food and Drug Administration is the government agency responsible for regulating medical ultrasound devices. The objective of this presentation is to give an overview of current FDA regulatory activities regarding ultrasound devices for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.
Systemic chemotherapy has been associated with poor tumor penetration and adverse cytotoxic effects. To combat this, cancer therapy with in-situ forming implants (ISFIs) can provide continuous, high dose release of chemotherapeutic drug directly at the tumor site. However, poor drug distribution through the tumor volume has limited the effectiveness and subsequent translation of ISFIs into clinical...
Focused ultrasound and microbubbles have been shown to locally and noninvasively open the blood-brain barrier. Despite encouraging results in human patients, several performance and safety features, such as poor drug distribution, high drug accumulation along vessels and small sites of red blood cell extravasation, have been unavoidable. We have recently developed a new ultrasound sequence — rapid...
Magnetic Drug Targeting (MDT) is a cancer treatment technique that enables a local chemotherapy. For this purpose, chemotherapeutic drugs are bound to magnetic nanoparticles and are accumulated in the tumor area by means of an external magnetic field. In order to adapt the position of the magnet the visualization of nanoparticles is of vital importance for MDT. Magnetomotive Ultrasound (MMUS) enables...
Externally controlled drug release from nanoscale drug delivery systems hold great potential to increase local deposit. Here, we introduce an ultrasound-activatable porphyrin-phospholipid liposome (PPL) to show its controllable drug release, enhanced imaging signals, and efficient therapeutic actions.
Sonodynamic therapy is a cancer treatment using drugs called “sonosensitizers” which, upon exposure to ultrasound (US), generate reactive oxygen species (ROS), thereby causing cell death. Despite the potential of sonodynamic therapy, many ideal sonosensitizers, such as protoporphyrin IX (PpIX), are hydrophobic compounds; poor water solubility limits systemic delivery and constrains clinical translation...
Acoustic droplet vaporization (ADV) is a process when a droplet is converted into a gaseous bubble under ultrasound (US) stimulation. Our previous study has shown that the mechanical force generated by ADV can release drugs and disrupt vessels. It would result in the streaming intact droplets leaking into tissue. In addition, the intact droplets may occur ADV process by subsequent US stimulation....
Acoustically-activated nanodroplets facilitate localized drug delivery after vaporization with improved in vivo stability, drug payload, and minimal interference outside of the ultrasound focal zone compared with microbubbles. They are new acoustic mediators to induce blood-brain barrier (BBB) opening for drug delivery to the brain, with promising potential of extravasation to enhance targeted delivery...
Nanomedicines recently gain great attention for their cancer targeting abilities and multi-functionality. Active targeting of nanoparticles with external stimuli-responsive property would improve the therapeutic efficacy and reduce harmful side effects because therapeutic effects are concentrated at the combined area of both drug and external stimuli.
Microbubbles have been widely studied as ultrasound contrast agents and drug/gene carriers. However, their short lifetime and micron-sized would hamper their applications. Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNPs) with large surface areas and pore volume allow for high drug payload and controllable release feature. Our previous studies showed that superhydrophobic MSNPs can adsorb surface bubbles, which...
Onychomycosis is a fungal nail disorder that is characterized by thick and yellow nails that can be extremely painful and lead to psychosocial issues. In onychomycosis, the fungus lives on the nail bed. Current antifungal drugs are applied to the top of the nail, but due to the poor permeability of the nail, they are unable to reliably reach, and therefore treat the fungus. These drugs only have non-serious,...
Ultrasound/microbubble (US/MB)-mediated drug delivery is a promising approach to effectively deliver therapeutic agents to target tumors by increasing vascular permeability through sonoporation. Equipped with focused ultrasound, drug delivery platforms can increase site-specificity. To move toward clinical translation, such a platform requires both image guidance for accurate location of tumor targets...
Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDA) is one of the most lethal cancers with a 5-year survival rate of 8% and 2% for late stage diagnosis. This is due to the dense stroma of PDA at distal stages and increasing drug resistance. Cisplatin, a platinum-based chemotropic drug, is used to treat PDA by damaging DNA of cells through mutation of the Brca gene. In this study, Harmonic Motion Imaging (HMI)...
Detection of phenylacetone is of interest as it is used as a precursor for the synthesis of (meth)amphetamine. The ability to detect illegal drugs at e.g. border crossings is valuable for governments. Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers (CMUTs) have previously been used to detect small amounts of analyte. If the sensitivity of the CMUT is known, the resonance shift can be used to directly...
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