Title:In-Vivo Gene Delivery by Sonoporation: Recent Progress and Prospects
VOLUME: 13 ISSUE: 1
Author(s):Jean-Michel Escoffre, Aya Zeghimi, Anthony Novell and Ayache Bouakaz
Affiliation:INSERM UMR 930 Imagerie & Cerveau - Universite Francois Rabelais, 10 ter bd Tonnelle, 37032 Tours Cedex 1, France.
Keywords:Sonoporation, ultrasound, microbubble, gene delivery, gene therapy, intravascular, intratissue, electroporation
Abstract:The increasing knowledge of cellular and molecular mechanisms of human diseases allows envisaging the gene
therapy by sonoporation as an emerging and promising therapeutic alternative. Sonoporation combines the local application
of ultrasound waves and the intravascular or intratissue administration of gas microbubbles. In such a way, the permeability
of vessels and tissues to the poorly permeant molecules is transiently increased. Ultrasound based modality offers
new opportunities since ultrasound can be easily focused on a target tissue or organ and hence gene delivery and expression
should be limited to the insonified region. Consequently, it might be possible to develop an efficient and safe tissue-
or organ-specific delivery method by microbubble targeting and focused ultrasound. This review focuses on the current
knowledge of sonoporation fundamentals and mechanisms. The sonoporation procedure and current preclinical trials
will be then presented. Finally, the new challenges of sonoporation will be discussed.
