With its ability to seemingly magically permeate deep into the body non-invasively to generate a surgical or therapeutic effect, focused ultrasound (FUS) has undoubtedly been the superstar of healthcare research over the last decade.
As it progressed from the research lab to clinical trials, and in some cases, for approved use with patients in clinical care, perhaps what’s even more exciting is where its potential lies in the future for many therapeutic treatments for a multitude of conditions and diseases.
At its very core are basic (bench research or foundation) scientists like Dr. Meaghan O’Reilly, one of several scientists pioneering therapeutic ultrasound at Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI).
“Investigations of FUS therapies in the brain have seen a particularly high level of research interest,” says Dr. O’Reilly, Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Ultrasound at SRI and University of Toronto. “The next generation of ultrasound-mediated therapies are currently under development.”
A patient undergoes a FUS procedure at Sunnybrook.
In a new paper she authored – published in the September 13, 2024 issue of the journal Science, Dr. O’Reilly provides an overview of the roots of FUS, its advances, and future outlook; highlighting four areas that have seen growth and sustained research interest in non-thermal therapeutic applications of the technology in and outside the brain.
These non-thermal applications instead rely on mechanical effects from sound waves – creating negligible temperature rise – as opposed to the higher-intensity applications that have been used to create a therapeutic burn to tissue.
She explains these technologies seek to leverage the non-thermal mechanisms of action of ultrasound to:
- Enable drug delivery to the brain (opening of the blood-brain barrier);
- Stimulate neurons (neuromodulation);
- Focally destroy tissue with high spatial precision; and
- Engage the endogenous immune system (activating immune response within cells like cancer cells) to fight disease.
“The resulting therapeutic approaches have clinical applications in cancer, neurodegenerative disease, vascular and cardiac disease, musculoskeletal health and more,” she pens in the article. “More researchers are joining the field, bringing together expertise from fields such as oncology, neuroscience and immunology, fuelling a surge in clinical translation and novel methods in ultrasound therapy.”
