Research of Ultrasound-Mediated Gene Delivery

Ultrasound wave can reach the deep tissues without any harm to human body. Ultrasound contrast agent (microbubble), which can highly enhance the ultrasound backscatter intensity, is widely employed in ultrasonography. Through the cavitation effects of microbubbles, the energy of ultrasound wave will be easily accumulated at the targeted tissue and finally released with the collapse of the bubbles, which will further promote the internalization of gene/drug into the cells, leading to the high transfection efficiency. Due to its non-invasiveness and safety, recent ultrasound-mediated gene therapy shows great potential via the combination of the clinic-realizable ultrasound microbubble technology and gene vectors. The ultrasound-mediated gene therapy, can not only be used in disease diagnosis, but also promote the spatio-temporal controlled release of drug/gene by sonicating at the targeted tissue. Furthermore, microbubble-induced sonoporation can be used as the driving force to transfer gene vectors into cells by improving the permeability of different biofilm These will together provide approach to visualization of gene delivery and efficient controlled gene expression. In this paper, the recent progress is reviewed in details from the following aspects; development of microbubbles, the mechanism and influence factors, and construction of ultrasound-mediated gene delivery system. Challenges and prospects of ultrasound-mediated gene delivery system are also discussed.