The safety of ultrasound exposure is essential for the patient’s health. According to the standard of the Ultrasound Society, the acoustic intensity emitted by medical ultrasound diagnostic equipment in the frequency range of 1-10 MHz must not exceed 1000 mW/ cm2. Waves of this frequency are well absorbed by biological tissue, but “too weak” ultrasound will not cause the necessary therapeutic effect on the organs that are planned to be affected. Experiments have shown that the adequate depth of 1 MHz ultrasound with an acoustic intensity of 800-1000 mW/cm2 is from 0.9 cm in muscle to 1.7 cm in fat tissue. This is not enough for human organs that are at greater depths. Bearing in mind that as the ultrasound frequency decreases, its wavelength increases, and at the same time, the penetration, low-frequency (up to 100 kHz) ultrasound is more suitable for non-invasive treatment (therapy), but there is a lack of effective means for creating such an acoustic effect. The acoustic intensity decreases exponentially and proportionally to the biological medium’s tissue attenuation coefficient and the action depth. In addition, this coefficient in the human body is proportional to the frequency of the operating ultrasound. This project will develop a low-frequency ultrasound device for endothelial cell treatment with ultrasound. Ultrasound exposure to endothelial cells is believed to lead to better drug penetration through the cell membrane and to the cell nucleus. Not all drugs are active after use. These drugs should be activated in vivo by hepatic cytochromes, which are abundant in the liver and kidneys. Exposure of liver and kidney cells with drugs and ultrasound will reveal clinically relevant biomarkers related to the function of these cells. Exposure of endothelial cells to extracts of liver and kidney cells will allow the identification of biomarkers related to the effects of the drugs and other biomolecules` effects on endothelium. Extracts of bacteria that synthesize biofilms will be used to evaluate the influence of biofilms and ultrasound on endothelial cell function. The planned studies will clarify the mechanism of ultrasound and drug effects on cell cultures and endothelial dysfunction.
Project funding:
KTU Research Fund
Project results:
Once biomarkers affecting cell culture properties have been identified, future studies could be carried out to determine the activity of these biomarkers in samples of patients and healthy individuals. If ultrasound is found to improve the properties of cell cultures, future studies with animals and humans could be conducted. This would lead to the development of a method for individualised treatment of patients.
Period of project implementation: 2024-04-11 - 2024-12-27
Project partners: Lithuanian University of Health Sciences
