Targeting accuracy and closing timeline of the microbubble-enhanced focused ultrasound blood-brain barrier opening in non-human primates

The delivery of drugs to specific neural targets faces two fundamental problems: Most drugs do not cross the blood-brain barrier and those that do spread to all parts of the brain. To date there exists only one non-invasive methodology with the potential to solve these problems: selective blood-brain barrier disruption using micro-bubble enhanced focused ultrasound. We have recently developed a single-element 500 kHz spherical transducer ultrasound setup for use in the non-human primate. Using this system for selective blood-brain barrier disruption is technically no more challenging than positioning a TMS coil, and does not rely on MRI-guided targeting or expensive phased array ultrasound systems. So far, however, the targeting accuracy that can be achieved with this system has not been quantified systematically. Here we tested the accuracy of the system by targeting the caudate nucleus of the basal ganglia in two macaque monkeys. Our results show that average in-plane error of the system is on the order of 2 mm and targeting error in depth, i. e., along the ultrasound path, is even smaller and averaged 1.2 mm. In summary, targeting accuracy of our system is good enough to enable the selective delivery of drugs to specific sub-structures of the basal ganglia.