New Aspects of Ultrasound-Mediated Targeted Delivery and Therapy for Cancer

Yuhang Tian,* Zhao Liu,* Haoyan Tan, Jiahui Hou, Xin Wen, Fan Yang, Wen Cheng Department of Ultrasound, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin 150080, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Wen ChengDepartment of Ultrasound, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, 150 Haping Road, Nangang District, Harbin 150080, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 13313677182Email chengwen69@yahoo.comAbstract: Ultrasound-mediated targeted delivery (UMTD), a novel delivery modality of therapeutic materials based on ultrasound, shows great potential in biomedical applications. By coupling ultrasound contrast agents with therapeutic materials, UMTD combines the advantages of ultrasound imaging and carrier, which benefit deep tissue penetration and high concentration aggregation. In this paper we introduced recent advances in ultrasound contrast agents and applications in tumor therapy. Ultrasound contrast agents were categorized by their functions, mainly including thermosensitive, pH-sensitive and photosensitive ultrasound contrast agents. The various applications of UMTD in tumor treatment were summarized as follows: drug therapy, transfection of anti-oncogene, RNA interference, vaccine immunotherapy, monoclonal antibody immunotherapy, adoptive cellular immunotherapy, cytokine immunotherapy, and so on. In the end, we elaborated on the current challenges and provided perspectives of UMTD for clinical applications.Keywords: ultrasound, targeted delivery, immunotherapy, gene therapy