Ultrasound and Microbubbles Combine for Drug Delivery, Detecting Biomarkers.

Abstract

Microbubbles and ultrasound are no longer teaming up only as a way to enhance images. New technologies are now using the two to create physical pathways into cells for easier drug delivery, even into the cells of highly drug-resistant cancerous tumors and across the blood-brain barrier. Going further, a Texas research group has developed drug-carrying microbubbles that can complete targeted delivery themselves, and another group in Missouri has shown that two-way traffic in channels across the blood-brain barrier also allow biomarkers to flow out, which provides a new window into the brain as well as brain diseases.