Poon Charissa, McMahon Dallan, Hynynen Kullervo
Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Physical Sciences Platform, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Neuropharmacology. 2017 Jul 1;120:20-37. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2016.02.014. Epub 2016 Feb 18.
The range of therapeutic treatment options for central nervous system (CNS) diseases is greatly limited by the blood-brain barrier (BBB). While a variety of strategies to circumvent the blood-brain barrier for drug delivery have been investigated, little clinical success has been achieved. Focused ultrasound (FUS) is a unique approach whereby the transcranial application of acoustic energy to targeted brain areas causes a noninvasive, safe, transient, and targeted opening of the BBB, providing an avenue for the delivery of therapeutic agents from the systemic circulation into the brain. There is a great need for viable treatment strategies for CNS diseases, and we believe that the preclinical success of this technique should encourage a rapid movement towards clinical testing. In this review, we address the versatile applications of FUS-mediated BBB opening, the safety profile of the technique, and the physical and biological mechanisms that drive this process. This article is part of the Special Issue entitled "Beyond small molecules for neurological disorders".
血脑屏障（BBB）极大地限制了中枢神经系统（CNS）疾病的治疗选择范围。尽管已经研究了多种绕过血脑屏障进行药物递送的策略，但在临床上取得的成功甚微。聚焦超声（FUS）是一种独特的方法，通过将声能经颅应用于目标脑区，可实现血脑屏障的无创、安全、短暂且靶向性开放，为治疗药物从体循环进入大脑提供了一条途径。目前迫切需要针对中枢神经系统疾病的可行治疗策略，我们认为该技术在临床前研究中的成功应促使其迅速迈向临床试验。在本综述中，我们阐述了聚焦超声介导的血脑屏障开放的多种应用、该技术的安全性概况以及驱动这一过程的物理和生物学机制。本文是名为“超越小分子治疗神经系统疾病”特刊的一部分。
