Ultrasound microbubble contrast agents: Application to therapy for peripheral vascular disease

Ultrasound contrast agents are not only effective in ultrasonic imaging but are also important tools for drug or gene delivery. Ultrasound beams can disrupt microbubbles and cell membranes, offering the opportunity to locally deliver drugs or genes. Liposome-shelled microbubbles have many advantages...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Advances in therapy 2009-04, Vol.26 (4), p.425-434
Main Authors: Hu, Yi-zhou, Zhu, Jia-an, Jiang, Ye-ging, Hu, Bing
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Albumins - therapeutic use
Cardiology
Chemistry, Pharmaceutical
Contrast Media - chemistry
Contrast Media - therapeutic use
Drug Delivery Systems - methods
Drug Delivery Systems - trends
Endocrinology
Fluorocarbons - therapeutic use
Gene Transfer Techniques - trends
Health technology assessment
Humans
Indicators and Reagents - therapeutic use
Internal Medicine
Lipids - therapeutic use
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Microbubbles
Oncology
Peripheral Vascular Diseases - diagnostic imaging
Peripheral Vascular Diseases - therapy
Pharmacology/Toxicology
Phospholipids - therapeutic use
Polysaccharides - therapeutic use
Review
Rheumatology
Safety
Sulfur Hexafluoride - therapeutic use
Ultrasonic Therapy - methods
Ultrasonic Therapy - trends
Ultrasonography - methods
Ultrasonography - trends
Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A - therapeutic use
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Summary:Ultrasound contrast agents are not only effective in ultrasonic imaging but are also important tools for drug or gene delivery. Ultrasound beams can disrupt microbubbles and cell membranes, offering the opportunity to locally deliver drugs or genes. Liposome-shelled microbubbles have many advantages and are widely used in many applications, while Lipofectamine™ (Invitrogen, Life Technologies, Carlsbad, CA, USA), as a material of microbubble membranes, has been used to enhance the effects of gene delivery. Ultrasound contrast agents that have therapeutic effects can be used for treating peripheral vascular diseases, particularly in thrombotic and angiogenic diseases. A combination of targeted contrast agent and drug-carrying contrast agent may be safer and more effective in treating thrombosis. Vascular endothelial growth factor-loaded microbubbles are expected to treat a variety of neovascular diseases such as severe limb ischemia and other diseases. Although there are several limitations in the application of therapeutic ultrasound microbubble contrast agents, it will offer a new hope for the treatment of peripheral vascular disease.
ISSN:0741-238X
1865-8652
DOI:10.1007/s12325-009-0020-y