Targeted drug delivery could be transformed by microbubble technology

Scientists have found a way to illuminate tiny bubbles which are used to track blood flow with medical imaging. In future such bubbles could also deliver targeted drugs in the body. Until now, researchers have been unable to accurately study the flexibility of microbubble shells, which are injected into the bloodstream as an aid to ultrasound imaging. This lack of information meant that it was hard to predict exactly how the bubbles would behave under the ultrasound beams. By adding a glowing molecule just beneath the outer shell of the bubble, researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Oxford were able to study the shells of bubbles in minute detail for the first time using a powerful microscope. This allowed them to accurately map microbubble shells and determine how flexible they are and could lead to future applications for targeting drug delivery to specific areas that require treatment. One of the lead researchers, Dr Marina Kuimova , from the Department of Chemistry at Imperial, said: "The new technique can potentially have a big impact on our understanding of how microbubbles interact with living cells and each other in blood vessels.