Abstract #1416

Kinoshita M, McDannold N, Jolesz F, Hynynen K

The blood-brain-barrier (BBB) is a persistent obstacle for the local delivery of macromolecular therapeutic agents to the central nervous system (CNS). Many drugs that show potential for treating CNS diseases cannot cross the BBB and there is a need for a non-invasive targeted drug delivery method that allows local therapy of the CNS using larger molecules. To overcome this problem, we developed a non-invasive technique that allows the image-guided local disruption of the BBB. Our major aims in this study were to 1) demonstrate that intravenously administered dopamine D4 receptor-targeting antibody crossed the BBB and recognized its antigens by using our MRI-guided focused ultrasound BBB disruption technique and 2) investigate whether or not we can monitor the extent of BBB disruption by the obtained MR images.