Abstract
Recently, the drug delivery with ultrasound and microbubbles has attracted much attention. This method can enhance the permeability of blood vessels due to induce oscillation and/or disruption of microbubbles inside the blood vessels under ultrasound exposure. In a clinical study, it was reported that the combination of ultrasound exposure with microbubbles and chemotherapy could be enhanced the anti-tumor effect. Therefore, it is expected that the modulation of microvascular permeability with ultrasound and microbubbles could be applied for the enhancement of EPR effect in cancer therapy with nano-sized drug carriers such as liposomes. Here, we will introduce the drug delivery with ultrasound and microbubbles and discuss the feasibility for the enhancement of EPR effect for nano-sized drug carriers.
