Sonoselective transfection of cerebral vasculature without blood-brain barrier disruption.

ABSTRACT: Treatment of many pathologies of the brain could be improved markedly by the development of noninvasive therapeutic approaches that elicit robust, endothelial cell-selective gene expression in specific brain regions that are targeted under MR image guidance. While focused ultrasound (FUS) in conjunction with gas-filled microbubbles (MBs) has emerged as a noninvasive modality for MR image-guided gene delivery to the brain, it has been used exclusively to transiently disrupt the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which may induce a sterile inflammation response. Here, we introduce an MR image-guided FUS method that elicits endothelial-selective transfection of the cerebral vasculature (i.e., "sonoselective" transfection), without opening the BBB. We first determined that activating circulating, cati

SUBMITTER: Gorick CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7084076 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature