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Targeted drug delivery with ultrasound and microbubbles: Mechanisms, applications and progress to clinics| old_uid | 14688 |
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| title | Targeted drug delivery with ultrasound and microbubbles: Mechanisms, applications and progress to clinics |
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| start_date | 2014/11/24 |
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| schedule | 11h |
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| online | no |
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| location_info | meeting room |
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| summary | In recent years, new promising possibilities for targeted drug delivery have been discovered based on the combination of ultrasound (US) and microbubbles. Ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs) are microbubbles consisting of a gaseous core (e.g., perfluorocarbon) surrounded by a biocompatible shell (e.g., phospholipid, polymer). UCAs are currently used in medical ultrasound diagnostics. They are injected into the bloodstream of patients in order to increase the acoustic contrast between blood and surrounding tissue, thus improving the quality of images and diagnostic confidence (also known as contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging, CEUs). The main applications of CEUs are the study of organs' perfusion (e.g., heart) and the characterization of pathological lesions (e.g., liver cancer). The UCA's shell can be decorated with binding ligands to allow targeted molecular imaging of physiological molecular markers that are over expressed on endothelial cells of the vascular system related to a physiopathological processes. Research in the field of CEUs is increasingly paying attention to fine-tuning pulse sequences and ultrasound equipment towards the acoustic properties of UCAs and vice-versa. Beyond these improvement issues, new promising applications of UCAs will emerge for targeted drug delivery. UCAs can be intravenously co-injected with drugs, genes or antibodies (also known as co-administration approach) or carry these molecules inside or on their encapsulating shell. This capability, in combination with the phenomenon known as sonoporation, provides unprecedented possibilities for a highly selective therapeutic action. The term sonoporation denotes a process in which ultrasonically activated contrast microbubbles result in their pulsation and/or disruption nearby cell membranes or endothelial barriers. This leads to an increase in vascular permeability, thus facilitating extravasation of drugs into tumor tissue and hence an augmented drug bioavailability.
This talk will address the recent strategies for imaging and therapy with ultrasound and microbubbles. |
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| responsibles | Blancho |
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