Ultrasound-Stimulated Phase-Change Contrast Agents for Transepithelial Delivery of Macromolecules, Toward Gastrointestinal Drug Delivery.

ABSTRACT: The gastrointestinal (GI) tract presents a notoriously difficult barrier for macromolecular drug delivery, especially for biologics. Herein, we demonstrate that ultrasound-stimulated phase change contrast agents (PCCAs) can transiently disrupt confluent colorectal adenocarcinoma monolayers and improve the transepithelial transport of a macromolecular model drug. With ultrasound treatment in the presence of PCCAs, we achieved a maximum of 44 ± 15% transepithelial delivery of 70-kDa fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran, compared with negligible delivery through sham control monolayers. Among all tested rarefactional pressures (300-600 kPa), dextran delivery efficiency was consistently greatest at 300 kPa. To explore this unexpected finding, we quantified stable and inertial cavitation energy g

SUBMITTER: Fix SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6701470 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature