Development of therapeutic microbubbles

Delivery of gaseous therapeutic molecules is challenging due to difficulties in maintaining formulation stability and achieving dose consistency. It may be possible to overcome these shortfalls by incorporating the gases into microbubble formulations. In his previous research, Dr Thakur has developed a novel strategy to both standardise the size and improve the stability of perfluorocarbon micro and nanobubbles. In this ongoing project, the technology is being further optimised and applied to a wider range of gases across several therapeutic applications. This research hopes to develop a versatile platform for the safe intravenous injection of gaseous therapeutics.

Sachin-Thakur

Principal Investigator: Dr Sachin Thakur

Contact email: s.thakur@auckland.ac.nz

Collaborator: Dr Harendra Parekh (University of Queensland) 

Status: Ongoing

Publications:

Thakur SS, Chen Y-S, Houston ZH, Fletcher N, Barnett NL, Thurecht KJ, Rupenthal ID, Parekh HS. Ultrasound-Responsive Nanobubbles for Enhanced Intravitreal Drug Migration: an Ex Vivo Evaluation. European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics. 2019;136:102-7. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0939641118314127

Thakur SS, Ward MS, Popat A, Flemming NB, Parat MO, Barnett NL, Parekh HS. Stably engineered nanobubbles and ultrasound – an effective platform for enhanced macromolecular delivery to representative cells of the retina. PLOS One. 2017;12(5),e0178305. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0178305