Enhancement of HIFU thermal therapy in perfused tissue models using micron-sized FTAC-stabilized PFOB-core endovascular sonosensitizers
Orane Lorton, P Guillemin, Ryan Holman, Stéphane Desgranges, Laura Gui, Lindsey A. Crowe, Sylvain Terraz, Antonio Nastasi, François Lazeyras, Christine Contino-Pepin, Rarès Salomir
Abstract
BACKGROUND: High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is clinically accepted for the treatment of solid tumors but remains challenging in highly perfused tissue due to the heat sink effect. Endovascular liquid-core sonosensitizers have been previously suggested to enhance the thermal energy deposition at the focal area and to lower the near-/far-field heating. We are investigating the therapeutic potential of PFOB-FTAC micro-droplets in a perfused tissue-mimicking model and postmortem excised organs. METHOD: and with dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE)-MRI in excised organs. RESULTS: . Differential heating under equivalent HIFU sonications demonstrated a dramatic improvement in the thermal deposition due to the sonosensitizers activity. Typically, the energy deposition was multiplied by a factor between 2.5 and 3 in perfused organs after the administration of micro-droplets, while DCE-MRI indicated an effective perfusion. CONCLUSION: The current PFOB-FTAC micro-droplet sonosensitizers provided a large and sustained enhancement of the HIFU thermal deposition at the focal area, suggesting solutions for less technological constraints, lower risk for the near-/far- field heating. We also report a suitable experimental model for other MRgHIFU studies.