INTRODUCTION The aim of the study was to investigate the efficiency of delivery and targeted binding of c-myc antisense oligodeoxynucleotide (ASODN) and find a novel therapy for hepatic carcinoma. MATERIAL AND METHODS A targeted ultrasound microbubble compound was synthesized to deliver the c-myc ASODN by ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD) and applied in hepatocellular carcino...

Contrast enhancement by microbubble infusion has proven its applicability in the field of diagnostic ultrasound. Recent studies also indicate a therapeutic effect of the combined use of ultrasound and microbubbles. Results from animal studies demonstrate that diagnostic ultrasound in combination with intravenous microbubbles can dissolve thrombi. So far, this effect has never been tested in pat...

Ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD) takes advantage of transiently increased capillary permeability to enhance the release of tumor-specific drugs from blood vessels into sonicated tumor tissues. However, the application of focused ultrasound is limited because of the lack of an appropriate image-monitoring system. In this study, hepatoma-bearing Sprague-Dawley rats were insonica...

BACKGROUND Preclinical atherosclerosis is associated with increased endothelial cell (EC) expression of leukocyte adhesion molecules (LAMs), which mediate monocyte adhesion during atherogenesis. Identification of cell-surface LAMs may uniquely allow assessment of endothelial function, but there are no in vivo methods for detecting LAMs. We tested a new microbubble designed to bind to and allow ...

The present study aimed to investigate whether low frequency low energy ultrasound combined with microbubbles induces apoptotic cell death of A7r5 rat aortic vascular smooth muscle cells, and to identify the possible mechanisms underlying this effect. Ultrasonic waves (45 kHz with 0.3 Wcm2 of intensity for 0, 10, 20 and 30 sec) were used together with different dosages of SonoVue™ microbubbles ...

t is well known that microbubble destruction can occur uring contrast echocardiography, primarily by acoustic avitation (1). The propensity of microbubbles to undergo his process when exposed to ultrasound depends on physcal properties of both the bubbles themselves and the ltrasound beam. Higher rarefactional peak amplitude (a easure of ultrasonic acoustic power) and lower frequencies ause gre...

Gas-filled microbubbles have the potential to become a unique MR contrast agent due to their magnetic susceptibility effect, biocompatibility and localized manipulation via ultrasound cavitation. In this study, two types of microbubbles, custom-made albumin-coated microbubbles (A-MB) and a commercially available lipid-based clinical ultrasound contrast agent (SonoVue), were investigated with in...

Site-specific perforation of the plasma membrane can be achieved through ultrasound-triggered cavitation of a single microbubble positioned adjacent to the cell. However, for this perforation approach (sonoporation), the recovery manoeuvres invoked by the cell are unknown. Here, we report new findings on how membrane blebbing can be a recovery manoeuvre that may take place in sonoporation episo...

Therapeutic approaches using gene-based medicines promise alternatives or adjuncts to conventional cancer treatment. Because of its non-invasive nature, ultrasound, as a membrane-permeabilising stimulus has the potential to be highly competitive with viral gene delivery and existing non-viral alternatives. In optimising ultrasound-mediated, microbubble-assisted (MB101) gene tranfection in vitro...

The aim of the present study was to explore the feasibility of enhancing green fluorescent protein (EGFP) gene transfection into the synovial joint tissues of rats with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by ultrasound-mediated microbubble destruction. An optimal SonoVue dose was determined using 40 normal rats categorized into five groups according to the various doses of microbubbles used. At 1 week af...