Nitrous oxide enhances MR-guided focused ultrasound delivery of gene therapy to the murine hippocampus.

ABSTRACT: Transcranial Magnetic Resonance Guided Focused Ultrasound can oscillate intravenously delivered microbubbles and transiently open the blood brain barrier (BBB) in a targeted brain region. However, high microbubble doses or Focused ultrasound pressures (FUS) leads to injury. So, we administered nitrous oxide (N₂O), an anesthetic gas to determine reduced need of FUS pressure and microbubble dose for opening BBB. Swiss Webster mice were treated with N₂O or medical air (MA) at varying FUS pressures, while the microbubble dose was kept constant and the vice-versa. Consequently, BBB opening was quantified by acoustic emissions and enhancement rate on T1-weighted MR. To compare the effect of N₂O on gene delivery, following BBB opening with either MA or N₂

SUBMITTER: Bhardwaj D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12823095 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature