Zurich – The technology developed at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich in recent years to navigate tiny gas bubbles through blood vessels using ultrasound also works in the brain. In future, this could be used to transport medicines exactly to where they are needed.
A team of researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich(ETH), the University of Zurich (UZH) and the University Hospital Zurich (USZ) has demonstrated that a technology developed in the laboratory at ETH also works in the brain. According to a report by the university, microbubbles filled with gas, so-called vesicles, were able to navigate not only through the blood vessels in the body, but also through the blood vessels in the brain of mice using ultrasound.
The researchers used two-photon microscopy for imaging. In the future, they would also like to use ultrasound for this purpose and will continue to develop ultrasound technology.
If, in a next step, it is possible to attach drugs to the outer skin of these small, soft vesicles and to extend the feasibility to humans, this could enable targeted therapies with significantly fewer side effects. According to ETH, the brain in particular has promising medical applications, from cancer to strokes and mental illnesses.
"Since the vesicles are already approved for use in humans, we will probably be able to bring our technology to approval and use in humans faster than alternative microvehicles that are currently being researched," says Daniel Ahmed, Professor of Acoustic Robotics at ETH and head of the study. His group has been researching this technology for several years. In 2019, the scientist, who specializes in micro- and nanorobotics for medicine, received a Starting Grant from the European Research Council. ce/mm