AUTHOR=Kida Hiroshi , Nishimura Koyo , Ogawa Koki , Watanabe Akiko , Feril Loreto B. , Irie Yutaka , Endo Hitomi , Kawakami Shigeru , Tachibana Katsuro 

TITLE=Nanobubble Mediated Gene Delivery in Conjunction With a Hand-Held Ultrasound Scanner

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pharmacology

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2020.00363

DOI=10.3389/fphar.2020.00363

ISSN=1663-9812

ABSTRACT=<p>Recent research has revealed that nanobubbles (NBs) can be an effective tool for gene transfection in conjunction with therapeutic ultrasound (US). However, an approach to apply commercially available hand-held diagnostic US scanners for this purpose has not been evaluated as of now. In the present study, we first compared <italic>in vitro</italic>, the efficiency of gene transfer (pCMV-Luciferase) with lipid-based and albumin-based NBs irradiated by therapeutic US (1MHz, 5.0 W/cm<sup>2</sup>) in oral squamous carcinoma cell line HSC-2. Secondly, we similarly examined if gene transfer in mice is possible using a clinical hand-held US scanner (2.3MHz, MI 1.0). Results showed that lipid-based NBs induced more gene transfection compared to albumin-based NBs, <italic>in vitro</italic>. Furthermore, significant gene transfer was also obtained in mice liver with lipid-based NBs. Sub-micro sized bubbles proved to be a powerful gene transfer reagent in combination with conventional hand-held ultrasonic diagnostic device.</p>