Facilitated brain delivery of poly (ethylene glycol)–poly (lactic acid) nanoparticles by microbubble-enhanced unfocused ultrasound

Nanotechnology plays a unique instrumental role in the revolutionary development of brain-specific drug delivery, imaging, and diagnosis, but is highly limited by the existence of blood–brain barrier (BBB). In this study, microbubble-enhanced unfocused ultrasound (MEUUS) was developed as an approach to mediate an extensive brain delivery of poly (ethylene glycol) – poly (lactic acid) (PEG–PLA) nanoparticles. Following the MEUUS treatment, the nanoparticles signals were found to penetrate through the vascular walls and distributed deeply into the parenchyma at a significantly higher level (more than 250%) than those of the non-MEUUS treated control. Such effect was reversible and dependent on nanoparticles injection timing, sonication mode and mechanical index. Together with the transmission electron microscopy analysis, the increased brain accumulation of nanoparticles was claimed to be largely mediated by an ultrasound-induced stable cavitation of the microbubble which resulted in mechanical stretching of the vessel wall and consequently induced cellular transcytosis of the nanoparticles. The MEUUS technique was also used to facilitate the brain delivery of PEG–PLA nanoparticles functionalized with amyloid beta-specific antibody 6E10 for enabling the recognition of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease that widely distributed in the brain. No erythrocytes extravasation and other visible damages in the brain were detected following the MEUUS treatment. These findings together indicated that unfocused ultrasound with the aid of microbubble could effectively improve the brain delivery of nanoparticles, and this approach might serve as a safe and flexible platform for the potential application of nanoparticles in the diagnosis and therapy of brain diseases.