Focused Ultrasound Immunotherapy for Central Nervous System Pathologies: Challenges and Opportunities.

ABSTRACT: Immunotherapy is rapidly emerging as the cornerstone for the treatment of several forms of metastatic cancer, as well as for a host of other pathologies. Meanwhile, several new high-profile studies have uncovered remarkable linkages between the central nervous and immune systems. With these recent developments, harnessing the immune system for the treatment of brain pathologies is a promising strategy. Here, we contend that MR image-guided focused ultrasound (FUS) represents a noninvasive approach that will allow for favorable therapeutic immunomodulation in the setting of the central nervous system. One obstacle to effective immunotherapeutic drug delivery to the brain is the blood brain barrier (BBB), which refers to the specialized structure of brain capillaries that prevents transport

SUBMITTER: Curley CT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5667336 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature