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Abstract
Having first been developed for ultrasound imaging, nowadays, microbubbles are proposed as tools for ultrasound-assisted gene delivery, too. Their behavior during ultrasound exposure causes transient membrane permeability of surrounding cells, facilitating targeted local delivery. The increased cell uptake of extracellular compounds by ultrasound in the presence of microbubbles is attributed to a phenomenon called sonoporation. Sonoporation has been successfully applied to deliver nucleic acids in vitro and in vivo in a variety of therapeutic applications. However, the biological and physical mechanisms of sonoporation are still not fully understood. In this review, we discuss recent data concerning microbubble–cell interactions leading to sonoporation and we report on the progress in ultrasound-assisted therapeutic gene delivery in different organs. In addition, we outline ongoing challenges of this novel delivery method for its clinical use.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The work discussed in this article was supported by the Region Centre (Nanodeliv project), the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-MEDDU project) and the Norwegian research cluster MedViz. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.