Bubbles invisible to the naked eye could provide the next breakthrough in treating heart and eye problems – and present an alternate treatment for cancer and cellulite as well.
University of Queensland pharmacy researcher Dr Harendra Parekh is confident his team's nanobubble technology can be applied across a number of diseases, limiting highly toxic or expensive medicines.
"Some drug companies will be very unhappy with me, I suspect," Dr Parekh said.
But he cautioned that the technology would not be available for clinical use for at least 3-4 years, though it has been proven the ultrasound approach is safe to the eye.
"Our work focuses on injecting highly-stable, pre-engineered nanobubbles which have the potential to penetrate far deeper into tissues assisted by non-invasive and harmless ultrasound," he said.
"In some eye diseases for example, you won't need to have $2000 injections, where the vast majority of drug fails to reach the retina.
"Current therapy is not only expensive, but it's largely ineffective."
The nanobubbles are imploded by ultrasound, creating temporary microscopic openings that enable the drug to transfer normally inaccessible tissue.
"Stability tests show that the nanobubbles are very resilient, stable enough to remain intact for many months, which is important from a commercial perspective," Dr Parekh said
"What's more, each component of the system is already approved for human use. It's how the components are combined and re-engineered that is novel."
Dr Parekh said his team had made significant headway towards developing an effective treatment for retinal diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration.
"Macular degeneration costs Australia $2.8 billion a year," he said.
"Imagine a scenario where you use a tenth of the standard drug dose we use today, merely by combining the drug with our nanobubbles then triggering them with ultrasound in the tissue you need to treat.
"This has the potential to revolutionise cancer chemotherapy too, with diminished side-effects and far shorter treatment regimens expected."
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Bubbles invisible to the naked eye could provide the next breakthrough in treating heart and eye problems – and present an alternate treatment for cancer and cellulite as well.
University of Queensland pharmacy researcher Dr Harendra Parekh is confident his team's nanobubble technology can be applied across a number of diseases, limiting highly toxic or expensive medicines.
"Some drug companies will be very unhappy with me, I suspect," Dr Parekh said.
But he cautioned that the technology would not be available for clinical use for at least 3-4 years, though it has been proven the ultrasound approach is safe to the eye.
"Our work focuses on injecting highly-stable, pre-engineered nanobubbles which have the potential to penetrate far deeper into tissues assisted by non-invasive and harmless ultrasound," he said.
"In some eye diseases for example, you won't need to have $2000 injections, where the vast majority of drug fails to reach the retina.
"Current therapy is not only expensive, but it's largely ineffective."
The nanobubbles are imploded by ultrasound, creating temporary microscopic openings that enable the drug to transfer normally inaccessible tissue.
"Stability tests show that the nanobubbles are very resilient, stable enough to remain intact for many months, which is important from a commercial perspective," Dr Parekh said
"What's more, each component of the system is already approved for human use. It's how the components are combined and re-engineered that is novel."
Dr Parekh said his team had made significant headway towards developing an effective treatment for retinal diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration.
"Macular degeneration costs Australia $2.8 billion a year," he said.
"Imagine a scenario where you use a tenth of the standard drug dose we use today, merely by combining the drug with our nanobubbles then triggering them with ultrasound in the tissue you need to treat.
"This has the potential to revolutionise cancer chemotherapy too, with diminished side-effects and far shorter treatment regimens expected."
Explore further: Lucentis approved for diabetic retinopathy
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Lucentis approved for diabetic retinopathy
(HealthDay)—A drug to treat the most common eye disease among diabetics has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Research proves nanobubbles are superstable
The intense research interest in surface nanobubbles arises from their potential applications in microfluidics and the scientific challenge for controlling their fundamental physical properties. One of the ...
In mice and men: Laser treatment reverses effects of early age-related macular degeneration
A new technique reported in the February 2015 issue of The FASEB Journal suggests that during early stages, it might be possible to reverse age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness that is currently irreve ...
FDA: Georgia pharmacy recalling all sterile drugs
(AP)—The Food and Drug Administration says a Georgia compounding pharmacy that distributed a drug linked to eye infections is now recalling all of its injectable medicines following a federal inspection.
Team finds novel approach to treating age-related macular degeneration
While oxygen is essential to our planet's life force and the way we function and stay healthy, high concentrations referred to as oxidative stress may very well be the cause of more than 70 widely-spread diseases such as ...
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For people with low vision who need bioptic telescopic glasses to drive, previous driving experience and the need for more training hours are the main factors affecting performance on driver's license road tests, according ...
Carnival game mimics eye growth
The motion of coins in a "Penny Pusher" carnival game is similar to the movement of cells in the eye's lens, as described in a new study published in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science (IOVS). This new insight m ...
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A smart and simple method developed at Rice University to image a patient's eye could help monitor eye health and spot signs of macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, especially in developing nations.
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Ernest Murry saw glaucoma steal his mother's vision, just as it had robbed sight from many other family members. There was a time when it seemed the same might happen to him. "When I went outside to walk, ...
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