Ultrasound and Microbubbles for the Treatment of Ocular Diseases: From Preclinical Research towards Clinical Application

The unique anatomy of the eye and the presence of various biological barriers make efficacious ocular drug delivery challenging, particularly in the treatment of posterior eye diseases. This review focuses on the combination of ultrasound and microbubbles (USMB) as a minimally invasive method to improve the efficacy and targeting of ocular drug delivery. An extensive overview is given of the in vitro and in vivo studies investigating the mechanical effects of ultrasound-driven microbubbles aiming to: (i) temporarily disrupt the blood–retina barrier in order to enhance the delivery of systemically administered drugs into the eye, (ii) induce intracellular uptake of anticancer drugs and macromolecules and (iii) achieve targeted delivery of genes, for the treatment of ocular malignancies and degenerative diseases. Finally, the safety and tolerability aspects of USMB, essential for the translation of USMB to the clinic, are discussed.

• Publication year

  2021

• Venue

  Pharmaceutics

• Publication date

  2021-10-25

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Engineering

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3390/pharmaceutics13111782PMID 34834196PMCID 8624665
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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