Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

Published in

National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 13(120), 2023

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2218847120

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Nonspherical ultrasound microbubbles

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Surface tension provides microbubbles (MB) with a perfect spherical shape. Here, we demonstrate that MB can be engineered to be nonspherical, endowing them with unique features for biomedical applications. Anisotropic MB were generated via one-dimensionally stretching spherical poly(butyl cyanoacrylate) MB above their glass transition temperature. Compared to their spherical counterparts, nonspherical polymeric MB displayed superior performance in multiple ways, including i) increased margination behavior in blood vessel–like flow chambers, ii) reduced macrophage uptake in vitro, iii) prolonged circulation time in vivo, and iv) enhanced blood–brain barrier (BBB) permeation in vivo upon combination with transcranial focused ultrasound (FUS). Our studies identify shape as a design parameter in the MB landscape, and they provide a rational and robust framework for further exploring the application of anisotropic MB for ultrasound-enhanced drug delivery and imaging applications.