Interaction dynamics and bioeffects of acoustically activated microbubbles with biological membranes

理想情况下，治疗药物将完全输送到患病组织，而不是健康组织。然而，现有的治疗药物通常与病变组织和健康组织相互作用。细胞毒性药物（如化疗）的治疗效果取决于其成分穿透组织和细胞以达到预期目标的程度，并受到施加于与疾病无关的组织和细胞的毒副作用的限制。我们小组特别感兴趣的是声音能量与比红细胞更小的微小气泡相结合的能力，以非侵入性地改善药物向患病细胞和身体深处组织的输送。我们的小组将研究声能与气泡的相互作用及其对活细胞的影响，目的是回答有关生物物理机制的基本问题，因为这仍然是一个相当大的研究课题。气泡暴露在兆赫频率（每秒数百万次振荡）的声能中，经历振荡和/或剧烈崩塌，将使用声学方法和高速摄像机（每秒500,000帧）进行表征。细胞将使用多种生物学方法进行分析。提高我们对超声和气泡选择性和局部递送治疗药物的能力的过程的理解，将有助于优化药物治疗，也有助于更好地理解这项技术的优势和局限性——超声靶向递送药物——关于其临床应用。

Ideally, therapeutic drugs would be delivered entirely to diseased tissues, sparring healthy tissue. However, existing therapeutic drugs generally interact with both diseased and healthy tissues. Treatment effectiveness of cytotoxic drugs such as chemotherapy depends on the extent to which their constituents penetrate tissues and cells to reach their intended target and is limited by toxic side effects exerted on tissues and cells not associated with the disease. Of particular interest to our group is the ability of sound energy in combination with tiny bubbles, which are smaller than red blood cells, to non-invasively improve delivery of drugs to diseased cells and tissues deep with the body. Our group will examine the interaction of sound energy with bubbles and their effect on live cells with the aim of answering fundamental questions on the biophysical mechanisms involved, as this remains a subject of considerable investigation. Bubbles, exposed to sound energy at megahertz frequency (millions of oscillation per second) that undergo oscillation and/or violent collapse, will be characterized using acoustic methods and a high-speed camera (500,000 frames per second). Cells will be analyzed using a variety of biological methods. Improving our understanding of the processes underpinning the ability of ultrasound and bubbles to selectively and locally deliver therapeutic agents will allow optimization of drug-treatments and also lead to a better understanding of the strengths and limitations of this technology - ultrasound targeted delivery of drugs - with regards to its clinical use.