Blood-Brain Barrier Opened With Ultrasound Implants to Let Drugs Through

The blood-brain barrier is a defensive mechanism that protects our most distinctive organ from toxic materials present in blood. It is also the same mechanism that prevents therapeutic drugs from being able to access the brain. There have been different attempts with limited success to be able to pass large drug molecules through the barrier, but now a new approach developed by CarThera, a Paris, France firm, is showing considerable promise.

In a clinical trial at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, four patients with a recurrence of glioblastoma received the SonoCloud implant in their scalp. The device projects ultrasound into the brain, shaking up the vessels through which blood moves and which contain the blood-brain barrier. Microbubbles injected into the blood travel up to the brain and are resonated by the ultrasound. The vibrating microbubbles create tiny perforations within the blood-brain barrier, allowing chemo drugs to sneak through and attack the tumors.

The technology still has a way to go in proving itself, but initial results are extremely promising. The four patients received a chemo treatment under the new system once a month, but the state of their tumors is yet to be assessed. We’re very hopeful that this technology ends up working as intended and brain cancers can be attacked with drugs that already work effectively on other types of cancer.

Flashbacks: Temporarily Opening Up the Blood-Brain Barrier Using Ultrasound Waves…; Ultrasound Penetrates the Blood-Brain Barrier…

Device info page: SonoCloud…

Abstract presented at the Focused Ultrasound symposium in North Bethesda, Maryland:Temporary Disruption of the Blood-Brain Barrier Using an Implantable Ultrasound System for Recurrent Glioblastoma Patients Under IV Carboplatin Chemotherapy: Initial Phase 1/2a Clinical Trial Observations…

(hat tip: NewScientist)