Focused Ultrasound Therapy
Focused ultrasound is a rapidly evolving, therapeutic technology that could transform the quality of life and decrease the cost of care for patients suffering from poisoning. This novel technology focuses beams of ultrasound energy precisely and accurately on targets deep in the body without damaging surrounding normal tissue.
How it Works
Where the beams converge, focused ultrasound can produce temporary opening of the blood brain barrier (BBB), which prevents the accessing of the brain by therapeutic agents that can help with organic phosphates and warfare poisons. A preclinical study showed that the use of oximes in treatment of a supra-lethal dose of venomous agent X (a very toxic nerve gas) resulted in enhanced recovery from the treatment. While significant work has been accomplished, there is still much to be done before this technology will be widely available.
The primary options for treatment of poisons involves the understanding of the type of the poison, and the ability to intervene in a timely manner.
For certain patients, focused ultrasound could provide a non-invasive alternative option to patients who inadvertently are exposed to pesticides or to warfare poisons.
Advantages
- Focused ultrasound is non-invasive, so it does not carry added concerns like surgical wound healing or infection.
- Focused ultrasound can reach the desired target without damaging surrounding tissue.
- It can be repeated, if necessary.
Clinical Trials
At the present time, there are no clinical trials recruiting patients for focused ultrasound treatment of organic poisons.
The Foundation updates these pages regularly, but with the increasing number of clinical trials, we want to be sure that our audience has the latest information available. Therefore, we also added the website search information for the above trials. If you click here, it will take you to the latest information available from https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/.
Regulatory Approval and Reimbursement
Focused ultrasound treatment for organic poisons is not yet approved by regulatory bodies or covered by medical insurance companies.
Notable Papers
Lépinard L, Leterrier S, Jourdain L, Turri L, Belkebir A, Knoertzer J, Champault A, Bel R, Selingue E, Mériaux S, Larrat B, Tournier N, Bo GD, Thibault K, Novell A. Corrigendum to “Enhancing oxime efficacy into brain using ultrasound to counteract nerve agent exposure” [Biomed. Pharmacother. 187 (2025) 118120]. Biomed Pharmacother. 2025 Jul;188:118233. doi: 10.1016/j.biopha.2025.118233. Epub 2025 Jun 11. PMID: 40500609
Lucie L, Sarah L, Laurène J, Louise T, Assia B, Julie K, Alexandre C, Rosalie B, Erwan S, Sébastien M, Benoit L, Nicolas T, Grégory DB, Karine T, Anthony N. Enhancing oxime efficacy into brain using ultrasound to counteract nerve agent exposure. Biomed Pharmacother. 2025 Jun;187:118120. doi: 10.1016/j.biopha.2025.118120. Epub 2025 May 9. PMID: 40347846
Kuca K, Valle da Silva JA, Nepovimova E, Pham NL, Wu W, Valis M, Wu Q, França TCC. Pralidoxime-like reactivator with increased lipophilicity – Molecular modeling and in vitro study. Chem Biol Interact. 2023 Nov 1;385:110734. doi: 10.1016/j.cbi.2023.110734. Epub 2023 Oct 1. PMID: 37788753
Andrýs R, Klusoňová A, Lísa M, Kassa J, Karasová JŽ. Effect of Oxime Encapsulation on Acetylcholinesterase Reactivation: Pharmacokinetic Study of the Asoxime-Cucurbit[7]uril Complex in Mice Using Hydrophilic Interaction Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry. Mol Pharm. 2021 Jun 7;18(6):2416-2427. doi: 10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.1c00257. Epub 2021 May 21. PMID: 34019427
Click here for additional references from PubMed.