Title : 3DYNAFS-MBAFUS: A virtual lab of microbubble-amplified focused ultrasound for noninvasive treatments of neurodisorders
Abstract:
Focused Ultrasound (FUS), especially when amplified by Microbubbles (MB), offers non-invasive options for treating deep-seated and brain tumors and other neurodisorders, by enabling targeted surgical ablation and/or local blood-brain-barrier opening (BBBO) for effective drug delivery. However, clinical translation faces significant challenges due to complex and intertwisted dependencies among various FUS and MB-related parameters, coupled with sensitivity to patient-specific conditions. To expedite the deployment of these non-invasive treatments using Microbubble-amplified Focused Ultrasound (MBaFUS), Dynaflow has developed a two-way coupled numerical platform, which models MBs in a Lagrangian fashion while solving acoustic and thermal fields in bio-media using an Eulerian approach. This allows for bidirectional interactions, where the acoustic field affects bubble dynamics, and bubble behavior influences pressure and heat deposition in bio-media.
MBaFUS serves as a Virtual Lab, streamlining therapy development and reducing the time and effort required for extensive testing. Researchers can explore new applications and advance basic science with this platform. Furthermore, it can function as a Treatment Planning System (TPS) in clinics for patient-specific optimizations. We demonstrate its efficacy in non-invasive deep-seated tumor ablation, validated against in vitro and ex vivo experiments where MBaFUS treatment for ex-vivo porcine tumor was conducted. Ongoing efforts to explore its potential for liquid biopsy, non-invasive diagnosis of brain diseases, will also be discussed. Lastly, we illustrate the prospects of MBaFUS's as a powerful tool to optimize Blood-Brain Barrier Opening (BBBO) for targeted drug delivery in treating neurodisorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.
