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Moderate-Intensity Ultrasound-Triggered On-Demand Analgesia Nanoplatforms for Postoperative Pain Management
Xinye Song1, Mengxiao Luan2, Weiyi Zhang1
1Department of Anesthesiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, 116011, People's Republic of China.
Introduction:
The restricted duration is a fundamental drawback of traditional local anesthetics during postoperative pain from a single injection. Therefore, an injectable local anesthetic that produces repeatable on-demand nerve blocks would be ideal.
Methods:
We offer ultrasound-triggered on-demand analgesia consisting of dendritic mesoporous silica nanoparticles (DMSN) carried with ultrasound-sensitive perfluoropentane (PFP) and levobupivacaine (DMSN-bupi-PFP) to achieve repeatable and customizable on-demand local anesthetics.
Results:
The vaporization of liquid PFP was triggered by ultrasound irradiation to produce a gas environment. Subsequently, the enhanced cavitation effect could improve the release of levobupivacaine to achieve pain relief under a moderate-intensity ultrasound irradiation. DMSN-bupi-PFP demonstrated a controlled-release pattern and showed a reinforced ultrasonic sensitivity compared to levobupivacaine loaded DMSN (DMSN-bupi). The sustained release of levobupivacaine produced continuous analgesia of more than 9 hours in a model of incision pain, approximately 3 times longer than a single free levobupivacaine injection (3 hours). The external ultrasound irradiation can trigger the release of levobupivacaine repeatedly, resulting in on-demand analgesia. In addition, DMSN-bupi-PFP nanoplatforms for ultrasound-enabled analgesia showed low neurotoxicity and good biocompatibility in vitro and in vivo.
Conclusion:
This DMSN-bupi-PFP nanoplatform can be used in pain management by providing long-lasting and on-demand pain alleviation with the help of moderate-intensity ultrasound.
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