Investigation of Inertial Cavitation Stimulation by Focused Ultrasound on Sonosensitive Nanoparticles for Drug Delivery Applications

Nanoparticles are of interest as carriers of pharmaceutically active ingredients, which can be released in certain target tissue areas. Drug release can be initiated by focused ultrasound via the effect of inertial cavitation. So far, inertial cavitation could be stimulated on sonosensitive nanoparticles of suitable size at low ultrasonic frequencies only. However, these frequencies do not permit sufficient focusing limited to the desired tissue region. Therefore, this study provides results employing short ultrasonic burst pulses of focused sound waves at higher frequencies for an efficient inertial cavitation effect utilizing a new designed type of nanoparticles.