Safety, Efficacy and Clinical Applications of Focused Ultrasound-Mediated Blood Brain Barrier Opening in Alzheimer's Disease: A Systematic Review
Open accessAbstract
Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder marked by cognitive decline and brain pathology involving amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Current drug development focuses on disease-modifying therapies, primarily antibodies targeting amyloid or tau. However, the blood-brain barrier (BBB) poses a challenge for drug delivery to the brain. Pre- and early clinical data suggests that Focused Ultrasound (FUS) technology safely enhances BBB permeability without damaging brain tissue, enabling drug delivery. This systematic review discusses the application of FUS to open the BBB for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We review the safety, efficacy, and potential biological effects of FUS-mediated BBB opening in AD patients.
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Noninvasive hippocampal blood-brain barrier opening in Alzheimer's disease with focused ultrasound.
Rezai, A. R., Ranjan, M., D’Haese, P.-F., Haut, M. W., Carpenter, J., Najib, U., Mehta, R. I., Chazen, J. L., Zibly, Z., Yates, J. R., et al. (2020) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2002571117 · Cited by 365 · cited 2× · see citing works
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Glymphatics visualization after focused ultrasound-induced blood-brain barrier opening in humans
Meng, Y., Abrahao, A., Heyn, C. C., Bethune, A. J., Huang, Y., Pople, C. B., Aubert, I., Hamani, C., Zinman, L., Hynynen, K., et al. (2019) · Annals of Neurology · doi:10.1002/ana.25604 · Cited by 114 · cited 5× · see citing works
“Meng et al. reported patterns of contrast distribution after the procedure (24).”
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- Authors
- Patwardhan, A., Wilkinson, T., Meng, Y., Alhashyan, I., Black, S. E., Lipsman, N., & Masellis, M.
- Affiliations
- Sunnybrook Health Science Centre (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Masellis, Mario
- Venue
- The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2024-08
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 975-982
- ISSN
- 2274-5807 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC12275862
- OpenAlex
- W4396586382
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 7
- FWCI
- 0.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer s Disease (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Edinburgh Research Explorer (University of Edinburgh) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Ultrasound and Hyperthermia Applications
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Barrier Structure and Function Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
- Keywords
- focused ultrasound, blood-brain barrier opening, Alzheimer's disease, blood-brain barrier permeability, brain drug delivery, amyloid plaques, tau protein, disease-modifying therapy, treatment safety, treatment efficacy
- MeSH terms
- Alzheimer Disease, Animals, Blood-Brain Barrier, Humans, Ultrasonic Therapy, Drug Delivery Systems
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