The new insight into the inflammatory response following focused ultrasound-mediated blood-brain barrier disruption

Despite the great potential of FUS-BBB disruption (FUS-BBBD), it is still controversial whether FUS-BBBD acts as an inducing factor of neuro-inflammation or not, and the biological responses after FUS-BBBD triggers the inflammatory process are poorly understood. The aim of this study is to investigate the safety window for FUS levels based on a comprehensive safety assessment.

The mice were treated with two different ultrasound parameters (0.25 MPa and 0.42 MPa) in the thalamus region of brain. The efficacy of BBB opening was verified by dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) and the cavitation monitoring. The transcriptome analysis was performed to investigate the molecular response for the two BBBD conditions after FUS-mediated BBB opening in time-dependent manners. Histological analysis was used for evaluation of the tissue damage, neuronal degeneration, and activation of glial cells induced by FUS-BBBD.

The BBBD, as quantified by the K_trans, was approximately threefold higher in 0.42 MPa-treated group than 0.25 MPa-treated group. While the minimal tissue/cellular damage was found in 0.25 MPa-treated group, visible damages containing microhemorrhages and degenerating neurons were detected in 0.42 MPa-treated group in accordance with the extent of BBBD. In transcriptome analysis, 0.42 MPa-treated group exhibited highly dynamic changes in the expression levels of an inflammatory response or NF-κB pathway-relative genes in a time-dependent manner whereas, 0.25 MPa was not altered. Interestingly, although it is clear that 0.42 MPa induces neuroinflammation through glial activation, neuroprotective properties were evident by the expression of A2-type astrocytes.

Our findings propose that a well-defined BBBD parameter of 0.25 MPa could ensure the safety without cellular/tissue damage or sterile inflammatory response in the brain. Furthermore, the fact that the excessive sonication parameters at 0.42 MPa could induce a sterile inflammation response via glial activation suggested the possibility that could lead to tissue repair toward the homeostasis of the brain microenvironment through A2-type reactive astrocytes.