Targeted drug delivery across the blood–brain barrier using ultrasound technique

Abstract

Effective delivery of therapeutic agents into the brain can greatly improve the treatments of neurological and neurodegenerative diseases. Application of focused ultrasound facilitated by microbubbles has shown the potential to deliver drugs across the blood–brain barrier into targeted sites within the brain noninvasively. This review provides a summary of the technological background and principle, highlights of recent significant developments and research progress, as well as a critical commentary on the challenges and future directions in the field. This review also outlines and discusses the tasks that researchers face in order to successfully translate the technology into a clinical reality, including obtaining improved understanding of the mechanisms, demonstration of therapeutic efficacy and safety for specific applications, and development of methodology for rational design to achieve optimized and consistent outcomes.