生物谷报道：美国尤他大学科学家Natalya Rapoport发现，超声能够将携带肿瘤药物的纳米小泡传递到肿瘤的靶位置上！这一发现为肿瘤的靶向治疗提供了重要的实验依据。

目前，全球制药巨头几乎全部关注纳米药物的研究，目前对纳米药物来说，最大困难在于如何将药物传送到病灶局部！目前采用的通用方法是将药物纳米化，并封装在纳米小泡内，或纳米微管内。但如何输送入细胞，并进入细胞后如何有效地释放成为研究的焦点和难点。

超声有助于纳米药物到达肿瘤的局部，是令人兴奋的研究结果之一。

Nanobubbles Deliver Targeted Cancer Drugs Using Ultrasound

A new targeted drug delivery method uses ultrasound to image tumors, while also releasing the drug from "nanobubbles" into the tumor. 

Cancer drugs can be targeted to tumors by delivering them in packets of nanoparticles, then releasing them with ultrasound. But this approach can be difficult because it requires a way to image the tumor prior to treatment.

Natalya Rapoport, Ph.D., D.Sc., of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and colleagues describe a new method of drug delivery that may address this problem. Their study appears in the July 10 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Nanobubbles filled with the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin were injected into mice. The bubbles accumulated in the tumors, where they combined to form larger "microbubbles." When exposed to ultrasound, the bubbles generated echoes, which made it possible to image the tumor. The sound energy from the ultrasound popped the bubbles, releasing the drug. In mice treated with this method, the nanobubbles were more effective at blocking tumor growth than other nanoparticle delivery methods.

"Microbubble formulations have been developed for combining ultrasonic tumor imaging and ultrasound-enhanced chemotherapeutic treatment," the authors write.

Source: University of Utah