Key Points
- Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic conducted a comprehensive review of approved and emerging applications of focused ultrasound for treating brain diseases.
- The article discusses three mechanisms of action and eleven diseases and conditions.
- Focused ultrasound can deliver acoustic energy through the skull to eliminate defective neurons, introduce drug and biological therapies, and modulate neurons.
Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic have conducted a comprehensive review of both emerging and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)–approved applications of focused ultrasound for treating brain diseases. The article discusses three mechanisms of action and eleven diseases.
- Thermal ablation is being used to treat essential tremor, Parkinson’s disease, obsessive-compulsive disorder, major depressive disorder, epilepsy, and neuropathic pain.
- Focused ultrasound–induced blood-brain barrier (BBB) opening is being investigated for brain tumors, Alzheimer’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
- Neuromodulation is under investigation for psychiatric disorders related to perception, emotion, and cognition and for impaired consciousness.
The authors effectively lay out the publication trail that demonstrates how focused ultrasound has been developed to deliver acoustic energy through the skull to eliminate defective neurons, introduce drug and biological therapies to specific regions, and modulate neurons via excitement or inhibition. The article contains an extensive list of references and clinical trial publications.