Wed September 9th 2015
16:30 – 17:00
ZH286
Seminar Drug loaded microbubbles for ultrasound guided cancer therapy
Ine Lentacker

Details:

Ultrasound and microbubbles have been used for several years in the medical imaging field. Due to its non-invasive nature and the easy and cheap procedure, ultrasound has also drawn a lot of attention in the drug delivery field. Ultrasound induced microbubble cavitation can be used to promote the local uptake of drugs by increasing cell membrane permeability in a process called sonoporation1. Within this relatively novel research field, drug loading of microbubbles has become increasingly important for the delivery of larger molecular drugs like genes. Drug-loaded microbubbles are particularly interesting because of their theranostic potential, as they allow to visualize the complete drug delivery process. Moreover, they can also reduce drug doses and thereby unwanted side-effects since only in ultrasound treated areas microbubbles will cavitate and promote the release and uptake of the encapsulated drugs. This talk will introduce the gene loaded microbubble constructs that were developed in our group and focus on their application for cancer vaccination2-5. Moreover, several burning questions on the microbubble cell interactions that play a role in this drug delivery process will be proposed to explain the presence of a pharmacist in a physics group.
Go back to the agenda.