The Future of Drug Delivery
Written by Lance Jimenez
Edited by Connie Quan
Jan 31, 2021
Edited by Connie Quan
Jan 31, 2021
A detailed painting requires different brush sizes. Precision is required for the finer parts and using a thick brush could smear the area around it, thus ruining the painting. Increasingly smaller brushes allow for finer details to be implemented. Similarly, pharmaceutical drugs benefit from precise tools, and methods involving them continue to be developed now. Currently, drugs meant for the brain have to travel through the blood.. As a drug flows through the blood, it gets distributed to non-target areas of the body, often causing side effects. Like the thick brush, the inability to bring the drug to specific areas can be problematic for our bodies. To solve this, a novel drug-delivery method is currently being researched, and it is demonstrating promising results.
Researchers from ETH Zurich have developed a way to deliver drugs to the brain with greater precision. First, they create lipid bubbles for the drug. Lipids are organic compounds that do not dissolve in the bloodstream. This makes them perfect for carrying the drug through the blood without coming into contact with non-target areas. Next, the researchers emit ultrasounds, which are high frequency soundwaves, to the target area. They trap the bubbles, and with added energy, pop them to release the drug. To test this method, they used a drug that slows brain activity on rats. Using the ultrasound technique, only the target area of the brain was affected while the rest of the brain was unaffected. Additionally, activating the drugs in just the target location created a higher concentration, meaning less of the drug was needed to achieve the desired effect. While other studies have tried to use ultrasound for similar purposes, unfortunately those procedures included damaging the body’s blood vessels. The method utilizing lipid bubbles, however,does not damage the body, so it has a high chance for use after further research.
With this new method of delivery, future research can focus on the treatment of mental illnesses, neurological disorders, and other brain diseases. Adjusting the method could also potentially allow for applications to the rest of the body, such as using ultrasound for the precise treatment of localized diseases like cancers. The potential use of this new discovery could benefit many and reduce the potential side effects of traditional prescribed drugs.
Works Cited
ETH Zurich. "Millimeter-precision drug delivery to the brain." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 5 October 2020. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201005101529.htm>.