ULTRASOUND MEDIATED PERMEABILITY-DRUG DELIVERY

DESCRIPTION (Verbatim from Applicant's Abstract): The goal of this project is
to demonstrate the feasibility of using ultrasound to temporarily make vascular
tissue and cell membranes more permeable to deliver drug to vessel walls. EKOS
has developed an ultrasound-catheter device for transmural drug delivery that
may be useful in the treatment of restenosis following balloon angioplasty.
Local ultrasound enhanced drug delivery may increase the usefulness of drugs
that are too toxic or expensive to deliver systemically. The results of Phase I
demonstrated that ultrasound can make eukaryotic cells permeable for the uptake
of exogenous materials. The permeability was correlated with aspects of the
acoustic signature radiated by the cavitation field in the cell suspension
during exposure. The aims of Phase II are to determine the effect of acoustic
parameters on molecular uptake and cell viability in simple cell suspensions
and more complex organized tissues and to develop a measure for the cavitation
mediated permeability based on acoustic signature analysis. This measure will
give a real time feedback predicting the bioeffects for optimizing therapy
delivery.
PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION:
The EKOS product will be an ultrasound catheter device that actively delivers drug into the
artery wall for the treatment of restenosis.