Ultrasound-Mediated Local Drug and Gene Delivery Using Nanocarriers

Abstract

With the development of nanotechnology, nanocarriers have been increasingly used for curative drug/gene delivery. Various nanocarriers are being introduced and assessed, such as polymer nanoparticles, liposomes, and micelles. As a novel theranostic system, nanocarriers hold great promise for ultrasound molecular imaging, targeted drug/gene delivery, and therapy. Nanocarriers, with the properties of smaller particle size, and long circulation time, would be advantageous in diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Nanocarriers can pass through blood capillary walls and cell membrane walls to deliver drugs. The mechanisms of interaction between ultrasound and nanocarriers are not clearly understood, which may be related to cavitation, mechanical effects, thermal effects, and so forth. These effects may induce transient membrane permeabilization (sonoporation) on a single cell level, cell death, and disruption of tissue structure, ensuring noninvasive, targeted, and efficient drug/gene delivery and therapy. The system has been used in various tissues and organs (in vitro or in vivo), including tumor tissues, kidney, cardiac, skeletal muscle, and vascular smooth muscle. In this review, we explore the research progress and application of ultrasound-mediated local drug/gene delivery with nanocarriers.

Direct Permeation of Nanoparticles across Cell Membrane: A Review

“…In clinical applications, ultrasound contrast agents consisting of microbubbles stabilized by surface active molecules such as proteins, polymers, and lipids have often been used for the sonoporation-assisting agents. More details of fundamentals and historical development of the sonoporation can be found in many literatures (e.g., Al-Dosari and Gao, 2009;Kodama et al, 2006;Mehierhumbert and Guy, 2005;Zhou et al, 2014).…”

Imaging-guided delivery of RNAi for anticancer treatment

“…Therefore, ultrasound probes with much smaller size, such as nanobubbles, nano-particles and nanoscale liposomes, with better tumor tissue penetration properties have been fabricated for ultrasound diagnosis and ultrasound-mediated siRNA delivery with better tumor accumulation [157, 167]. For instance, the ultrasound-sensitive siRNA nanobubbles made from positively charged liposomes with gas core and decorated with negatively charged siRNA on the surface could effectively accumulate in the tumor tissues through EPR effect, demonstrating high potency for tumor imaging and targeted delivery of siRNA for RNAi therapy [168].…”

A brief glimpse over the horizon for type 1 diabetes nanotherapeutics

“…Another approach could be EM-dependent drug/biology release. This approach is attractive due to its exquisite tunability and precise control over how much drug/biologic is released over time [68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78]. The general limitation of these approaches is the penetration of the EM radiation inside the body and the ability to precisely control the accumulation of the NPs into the pancreatic organ/ pancreatic lymph nodes.…”

“…The general limitation of these approaches is the penetration of the EM radiation inside the body and the ability to precisely control the accumulation of the NPs into the pancreatic organ/ pancreatic lymph nodes. Among the current technologies, ultrasound-guided migration and then ultrasound-stimulated NP behavior is the most evolved among all the technologies [69,72,74,76].…”