Photoacoustic imaging of gold nanorods in the brain delivered via microbubble-assisted focused ultrasound: a tool for in vivo molecular neuroimaging

The protective barriers of the CNS present challenges during the treatment and monitoring of diseases. In particular, the blood brain barrier is a major hindrance to the delivery of imaging contrast agents and therapeutics to the brain. In this work, we use gas microbubble-assisted focused ultrasoun...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Laser physics letters 2019-02, Vol.16 (2), p.25603
Main Authors: Hartman, Robin K, Hallam, Kristina A, Donnelly, Eleanor M, Emelianov, Stanislav Y
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
blood brain barrier opening
focused ultrasound
nanoparticles
ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging
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Summary:The protective barriers of the CNS present challenges during the treatment and monitoring of diseases. In particular, the blood brain barrier is a major hindrance to the delivery of imaging contrast agents and therapeutics to the brain. In this work, we use gas microbubble-assisted focused ultrasound to transiently open the blood brain barrier and locally deliver silica coated gold nanorods across the barrier. This particular nanoagent possesses a strong optical absorption which enables in vivo and ex vivo visualization of the delivered particles using ultrasound-guided photoacoustic imaging. The results of these studies demonstrate the potential of ultrasound-guided photoacoustics to image contrast agents delivered via microbubble-assisted focused ultrasound for longitudinal diagnostic imaging and for therapeutic monitoring of neurological diseases.
ISSN:1612-2011
1612-202X
DOI:10.1088/1612-202X/aaf89e