RT Journal Article
T1 Ultrasound-triggered local anaesthesia
A1 Rwei, Alina Y.
A1 Paris, J.L.
A1 Wang, Bruce
A1 Axon, Christopher D.
A1 Vallet Regí, María Dulce Nombre
A1 Langer, Robert
A1 Kohane, Daniel S.
A1 Weiping, Wang
AB On-demand relief of local pain would allow patients to control the timing, intensity and duration of nerve blocks in a safe and non-invasive manner. Ultrasound would be a suitable trigger for such a system, as it is in common clinical use and can penetrate deeply into the body. Here, we demonstrate that ultrasound-triggered delivery of an anaesthetic from liposomes allows the timing, intensity and duration of nerve blocks to be controlled by ultrasound parameters. On insonation, the encapsulated sonosensitizer protoporphyrin IX produced reactive oxygen species that reacted with the liposomal membrane, leading to the release of the potent local anaesthetic tetrodotoxin. Repeatable ultrasound-triggered nerve blocks were achieved in vivo, with the nerve-block duration depending on the extent and intensity of insonation. There was no detectable systemic toxicity and tissue reaction was benign in all groups. On-demand, personalized local anaesthesia could be beneficial for the management of relatively localized pain states and could potentially minimize opioid use.
PB Nature Biomedical Engineering
SN 2157-846X
YR 2017
FD 2017-08-09
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/18180
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/18180
LA eng
NO Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO)
NO National Institutes of Health grant
DS Docta Complutense
RD 20 mar 2026