Scientists at Northwestern Medicine have achieved a major advancement by using ultrasound technology to penetrate the blood-brain barrier and deliver chemotherapy and immunotherapies to treat glioblastoma, a deadly brain cancer. “This is the first report in humans where an ultrasound device has been used to deliver drugs and antibodies to glioblastoma to change the immune system, so it can recognize and attack the brain cancer,” Dr. Adam Sonabend, a Northwestern Medicine neurosurgeon and the study’s co-author, said in a press release.
“This could be a major advance for the treatment of glioblastoma, which has been a frustratingly difficult cancer to treat, in part due to poor penetration of circulating drugs and antibodies into the brain.” The therapy used an ultrasound device implanted into the skull to temporarily open the blood-brain barrier, a tightly guarded layer of cells protecting the brain from harmful substances and pathogens. The device produces microbubbles to disrupt this barrier, allowing drug therapies to enter the brain.
“Clinical studies have shown that this technique is safe and effective, with ongoing studies further exploring its therapeutic applications,” the authors wrote. Once the barrier is breached, immunotherapies can activate the immune system’s response against the brain cancer. In glioblastoma, the cancer evades lymphocytes, immune cells responsible for fighting tumors, by tricking the body into recognizing it as a normal tissue.
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