Ultrasound used to make an opening in the blood-brain barrier

While researching ways to get things into the brain for my group’s device design project, we came across the idea of using ultrasound to open the blood brain barrier. In recent experiments scientists have seen that focused ultrasound exposures caused reversible openings in the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in target locations. The ultrasound is applied in the presence of preformed gas bubbles. The actual cellular mechanisms of this transient BBB disruption are largely unknown. Experiments have been done on rabbits that resulted in BBB openings. These findings could be considered in further development of the strategy for drug (or nano-robot) delivery in the brain.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15313330&dopt=Citation